Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Stefanie Schneider
Untitled (Olancha) - Stranger than Paradise - analog C-Print based on a Polaroid

2006

$1,763.25
£1,310.38
€1,500
CA$2,421.38
A$2,725.69
CHF 1,441.99
MX$33,808.81
NOK 17,817.34
SEK 17,040.71
DKK 11,414.56
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Untitled (Olancha) - 2006 38x37cm. Edition of 5, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on a Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory No. 747. Not mounted. Stefanie Schneider’s work captures the American West in a way that transcends mere documentation—it distills the mythos of the frontier into something dreamlike, deteriorating, and deeply personal. Her images evoke Ed Ruscha’s fascination with roadside Americana, Georgia O’Keeffe’s reverence for arid landscapes, and Edward Hopper’s haunting loneliness, yet they engage in a unique dialogue with history, both photographic and cultural. How did a German artist become one of the most essential voices in the visual storytelling of the American dream—and its unraveling? Born in Germany in 1968, Schneider grew up in a divided nation, where the scars of history were still visible in the landscape. This early exposure to ruptured histories and fading ideologies may explain her pull toward the abandoned edges of the American West—a land that once symbolized limitless possibility but now bears the melancholy of faded utopias. Schneider’s process begins in these liminal spaces—the parched deserts and forgotten highways of Southern California—where she photographs her subjects using expired Polaroid film. The very material of her work embodies impermanence and decay, its chemical imperfections mirroring the breakdown of memory and myth. In Berlin, she develops and enlarges her images by hand, bringing an almost cinematic post-production process to a medium often associated with instant gratification. Her role in preserving Polaroid film as an artistic medium has placed her at the forefront of a historical crossroads in photography. At a time when instant film was being phased out—a casualty of digital progress—Schneider refused to let it vanish. In doing so, she not only safeguarded a crucial chapter in photographic history but also cemented her place as one of its key narrators, treating Polaroid not as a tool of nostalgia but as a medium uniquely suited to capturing time slipping away. This tension between preservation and deterioration is central to Schneider’s work. As she told Artnet in 2014, her images are deeply personal explorations of longing, memory, and loss: "My work resembles my life: Love, lost and unrequited, leaves its mark in our lives as a senseless pain that has no place in the present." The notion of absence—whether in love, landscapes, or fading cultural dreams—haunts her work. Her subjects, often seen in desolate spaces—trailer parks, oilfields, run-down motels, and empty highways—appear disconnected, isolated even when together. The ghosts of American iconography—the road trip, the drifter, the neon-lit escape—are present, yet they flicker like echoes of a past that may never have existed as we remember it. In many ways, Schneider’s vision of the American West is a farewell letter—not to the physical place, but to the idea of it. She does not merely document a landscape; she captures the moment it dissolves, leaving behind only traces of what was. In doing so, she ensures that the story of the West, much like her Polaroid film, lingers—imperfect, beautiful, and just beyond our grasp.

More From This Seller

View All
Sunset (Deconstructivism)
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Sunset (Deconstructivism) - 2015 80x80cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Invento...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Radha Shooting II (Long Way Home) - Polaroid, Pop-art, Contemporary, analog
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Radha Shooting II (Long Way Home) - 1999 published in 'Stranger than Paradise' 128x126cm Sold out edition of 5, Artist proof 2/2, Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Metal

29 Palms, CA - based on a Polaroid
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
29 Palms, CA - 2010 40x40cm, Edition of of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Digital C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and signature label. Artist Inventory # 1897. Not mount...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Radha Mitchell on the Set of 'The Crazies' - Polaroid, Women, expired, movies
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Radha Mitchell on the Set of 'The Crazies'' - 2009 24x30cm Edition of 10, digital C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature Label and Certificate. Artist inventory 11678. not moun...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Await (The Girl behind the White Picket Fence) - Polaroid
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Await (The Girl behind the White Picket Fence) - 2013 50x60cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory #13084. ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Radha Pink - 130x130cm LAST EDITION - Contemporary, 20th Century, Polaroid
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
'Radha Pink' (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 130x128cm, sold out Edition of 5, Artist Proof 2/2 (last), analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, based on t...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

You May Also Like

Elena Seated
By Jack Perno
Located in Chicago, IL
Archival Pigment Print Edition of 25 Print size: 38 H x 30 W inches Frame size: 54 H x 44 W inches This piece is a digital reproduction of an original 8 x 10" polaroid that was man...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Inkjet, Polaroid

Elena Washing
By Jack Perno
Located in Chicago, IL
Archival Pigment Print Edition of 25 Print size: 38 H x 30 W inches Frame size: 54 H x 44 W inches This piece is a digital reproduction of an original 8 x 10" polaroid that was man...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Inkjet, Polaroid

Ferrari tire change by Tyler Shields - Framed Photograph
By Tyler Shields
Located in New York City, NY
Los Angeles-based photographer Tyler Shields seeks “beauty in chaos,” capturing both young models and celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton. His polished editorial imag...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Plexiglass, Archival Paper, C Print

Ferrari high heel by Tyler Shields - Framed Photograph
By Tyler Shields
Located in New York City, NY
Los Angeles-based photographer Tyler Shields seeks “beauty in chaos,” capturing both young models and celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton. His polished editorial imag...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Plexiglass, Archival Paper, C Print

High heel dinner by Tyler Shields - Framed Photograph
By Tyler Shields
Located in New York City, NY
Los Angeles-based photographer Tyler Shields seeks “beauty in chaos,” capturing both young models and celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton. His polished editorial imag...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Plexiglass, Archival Paper, C Print

Ferrari Monochrome by Tyler Shields - Framed Photograph
By Tyler Shields
Located in New York City, NY
Los Angeles-based photographer Tyler Shields seeks “beauty in chaos,” capturing both young models and celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton. His polished editorial imag...
Category

2010s Contemporary Color Photography

Materials

Plexiglass, Archival Paper, C Print