Art by Medium: Polaroid

'Hot Tub' (Heavenly Falls) - 2016 50x50cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print based on a Polaroid, Certificate and signature label, artist inventory number: 19715.08 Not mounted. ...

Melt your mind - 2021 - 20x20cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2021-1068. ...

Untitled (The Last Picture Show), 2005 38x36cm, Edition 2/5. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, based on the original SX-70 Polaroid. Inventory No. 781.02. Signature label and Certificate. Not mounted. LIFE’S A DREAM (The Personal World of Stefanie Schneider) by Mark Gisbourne Projection is a form of apparition that is characteristic of our human nature, for what we imagine almost invariably transcends the reality of what we live. And, an apparition, as the word suggests, is quite literally ‘an appearing’, for what we appear to imagine is largely shaped by the imagination of its appearance. If this sounds tautological then so be it. But the work of Stefanie Schneider is almost invariably about chance and apparition. And, it is through the means of photography, the most apparitional of image-based media, that her pictorial narratives or photo-novels are generated. Indeed, traditional photography (as distinct from new digital technology) is literally an ‘awaiting’ for an appearance to take place, in line with the imagined image as executed in the camera and later developed in the dark room. The fact that Schneider uses out-of-date Polaroid film stock to take her pictures only intensifies the sense of their apparitional contents when they are realised. The stability comes only at such time when the images are re-shot and developed in the studio, and thereby fixed or arrested temporarily in space and time. The unpredictable and at times unstable film she adopts for her works also creates a sense of chance within the outcome that can be imagined or potentially envisaged by the artist Schneider. But this chance manifestation is a loosely controlled, or, better called existential sense of chance, which becomes pre-disposed by the immediate circumstances of her life and the project she is undertaking at the time. Hence the choices she makes are largely open-ended choices, driven by a personal nature and disposition allowing for a second appearing of things whose eventual outcome remains undefined. And, it is the alliance of the chance-directed material apparition of Polaroid film, in turn explicitly allied to the experiences of her personal life circumstances, that provokes the potential to create Stefanie Schneider’s open-ended narratives. Therefore they are stories based on a degenerate set of conditions that are both material and human, with an inherent pessimism and a feeling for the sense of sublime ridicule being seemingly exposed. This in turn echoes and doubles the meaning of the verb ‘to expose’. To expose being embedded in the technical photographic process, just as much as it is in the narrative contents of Schneider’s photo-novel exposés. The former being the unstable point of departure, and the latter being the uncertain ends or meanings that are generated through the photographs doubled exposure. The large number of speculative theories of apparition, literally read as that which appears, and/or creative visions in filmmaking and photography are self-evident, and need not detain us here. But from the earliest inception of photography artists have been concerned with manipulated and/or chance effects, be they directed towards deceiving the viewer, or the alchemical investigations pursued by someone like Sigmar Polke. None of these are the real concern of the artist-photographer Stefanie Schneider, however, but rather she is more interested with what the chance-directed appearances in her photographs portend. For Schneider’s works are concerned with the opaque and porous contents of human relations and events, the material means are largely the mechanism to achieving and exposing the ‘ridiculous sublime’ that has come increasingly to dominate the contemporary affect(s) of our world. The uncertain conditions of today’s struggles as people attempt to relate to each other - and to themselves - are made manifest throughout her work. And, that she does this against the backdrop of the so-called ‘American Dream’, of a purportedly advanced culture that is Modern America, makes them all the more incisive and critical as acts of photographic exposure. From her earliest works of the late nineties one might be inclined to see her photographs as if they were a concerted attempt at an investigative or analytic serialisation, or, better still, a psychoanalytic dissection of the different and particular genres of American subculture. But this is to miss the point for the series though they have dates and subsequent publications remain in a certain sense unfinished. Schneider’s work has little or nothing to do with reportage as such, but with recording human culture in a state of fragmentation and slippage. And, if a photographer like Diane Arbus dealt specifically with the anomalous and peculiar that made up American suburban life, the work of Schneider touches upon the alienation of the commonplace. That is to say how the banal stereotypes of Western Americana have been emptied out, and claims as to any inherent meaning they formerly possessed has become strangely displaced. Her photographs constantly fathom the familiar, often closely connected to traditional American film genre, and make it completely unfamiliar. Of course Freud would have called this simply the unheimlich or uncanny. But here again Schneider almost never plays the role of the psychologist, or, for that matter, seeks to impart any specific meanings to the photographic contents of her images. The works possess an edited behavioural narrative (she has made choices), but there is never a sense of there being a clearly defined story. Indeed, the uncertainty of my reading here presented, acts as a caveat to the very condition that Schneider’s photographs provoke. Invariably the settings of her pictorial narratives are the South West of the United States, most often the desert and its periphery in Southern California. The desert is a not easily identifiable space, with the suburban boundaries where habitation meets the desert even more so. There are certain sub-themes common to Schneider’s work, not least that of journeying, on the road, a feeling of wandering and itinerancy, or simply aimlessness. Alongside this subsidiary structural characters continually appear, the gas station, the automobile, the motel, the highway, the revolver, logos and signage, the wasteland...

Bedtime story I , 2017, 20x20cm, Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, Digital C-print, based on a Polaroid, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2017...

'Headspace', 2020 50x38cm, Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, Digital C-print, Based on an original Polaroid. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2020-876....

Metropolis – (2021) [ Influenced by Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis] Edition of 10 - 20 x 20 cm Archival C-Print based on a Polaroid, not mounted. Signed on back and certificat...

Surrender - 2020 50x50cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proof Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and certificate. Artist inventory PL2020-900. Not mounted. Ki...

Windmills of your Mind (Heavenly Falls) - 2016 40x48cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Certificate and signature label. Artist invent...

Making out in Car (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 49x48cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label....

"Pola Girls 10" Unique Polaroid Photography by Larsen Sotelo 4.2" x 3.5" inch - including white Polaroid frame 3.1" x 3,1" inch - image area Comes with A...

In this series in black & white and with the same model. The artist represents what for him the object woman of the modern world is. The diversity of German photographer...

When love breaks down - 2020 37x50cm, Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, Digital C-print, Based on an original Polaroid. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory ...

Life and how to live it, 2016 Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proofs Digital C-print, Based on Polaroid, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2016-791...

A Princess' Life (High Desert) - 2019 Edition 1/10, 20x20cm. Digital C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory # 22182 Not mounted. Stef...

Renée's Dream - The Boys (Days of Heaven). Part of the 29 Palms, CA project. - 2006 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs, archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signatur...

Malina (Stranger than Paradise) - 1997 43x59cm, Edition of 1/5. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the Polaroid. Signature Label and Certificate. Artist Invento...

Untitled (Beachshoot) - 2005 48x46cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on a Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory # 1456. Not ...

Wonder Valley (Sidewinder) - 2005 Edition of 5, 156x125cm. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory No. 3094. Not mounted. "...

Cups III (Suburbia) - 2004 50x60cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid, Signed on verso with Certificate, Artist inventory number: 2913. Not mounted. Stefa...

Untitled (The Last Picture Show) - 2006 20x20cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid. Artist inventory number: 21140. Signature ...

Stefanie Schneider's work was used for Marc Forster's movie 'Stay', featuring Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling. Naomi and Ryan were both portraying artists and Stefanie Sc...

Fighting back the Darkness (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 20x20cm, Edition 9/10. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory No. 9...

Magic Mountain III (Memories of Green) - 2003 Edition of 10, 58x56cm. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper. based on an expired Polaroid, Artist...

The Cave II - Planet of the Apes 11 - 1999 98x97cm. Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory ...

Once in a Blue Moon (The Girl Behind the White Picket Fence) - 2013 Including Stefanie Schneider's new monograph "A Half Forgotten Dream" signed. 192 pages, hardcover, published by ...

OK Corral - part 2 - (Stranger than Paradise), - 1999, 20x20 cm, Edition 5/10, digital C-Print based on the Polaroid, Artist Inventory 318_2.18, Not mounted. Stefanie Schneider's scintillating situations take place in the American West. Situated on the verge of an elusive super-reality, her photographic sequences provide the ambience for loosely woven story lines and a cast of phantasmic characters. Schneider works with the chemical mutations of expired Polaroid film stock. Chemical explosions of color spreading across the surfaces undermine the photograph's commitment to reality and induce her characters into trance-like dream scapes. Like flickering sequences of old road movies Schneider's images seem to evaporate before conclusions can be made - their ephemeral reality manifesting in subtle gestures and mysterious motives. Schneider's images refuse to succumb to reality, they keep alive the confusions of dream, desire, fact, and fiction. Stefanie Schneider received her MFA in Communication Design at the Folkwang Schule Essen, Germany. Her work has been shown at the Museum for Photography, Braunschweig, Museum für Kommunikation, Berlin, the Institut für Neue Medien, Frankfurt, the Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Museum für Moderne Kunst Passau, Les Rencontres d'Arles, Foto -Triennale Esslingen. “It was Stefanie Schneider, who inspired me to start the company THE IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT after seeing her work, which seems to achieve the possible from the impossible, creating the finest of art out of the most basic of mediums and materials. Indeed, after that one day, I was so impressed with her photography that I realized Polaroid film could not be allowed to disappear. Being at the precise moment in time where the world was about to lose Polaroid, I seized the moment and have put all my efforts and passion into saving Polaroid film. For that, I thank Stefanie Schneider almost exclusively, who played a bigger role than anyone in saving this American symbol of photography.” –Florian Kaps, March 8th 2010 (“Doc” Dr. Florian Kaps, founder of “The Impossible Project”) Exhibitions Selected (selected) 2018 Participation Bombay Beach Biennale, Bombay Beach, USA (G) March Available to All, Rough Play Projects - Site Specific, Joshou Tree, USA (G) curated by Deborah Martin with Adam Berg, Doron Gazit, Kellan Barnebey, Chris Sanchez, Aili Schmelzt 2017 BLICKFELD Analoge Fotografie, Kommunale Galerie Steglitz-Zehlendorf (G) (catalog), (upcoming)
 Rosegallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica (G) Magie des Moments, Kunstverein Bad Homburg Artlantis, Bad Homburg (G) 2016 
Instantdreams, Instantdreams Gallery, Berlin 

(S) 2015
 Desert Voices, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G) with Pamela Littky The Ballery in Heat, The Ballery, Berlin (G) 
Blue Nudes, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G) 

 2014

 Summer Show, Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris, France (G) 6 Finalists, Saatchi Gallery London (G) 
Instantdreams, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (S)
Grand Opening, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G) with Banksy, Andy Warhol, Alison Bignon, Sophie Dickens, Victor Gingembre and others
 2013 
Heather's Dream, Short, nominated for the German Short Film Award 2013 (Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis)
Images For Images (Artists fir Tichy), GASK - Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region,  Kutná Hora, Czech Republic, (G) with Richard Prince, Nan Golding, Shirana Shahbazi, Sophie Calle, Martin Kippenberger, Arnulf Rainer, Thomas Ruff, Katharina Grosse, Jonathan Meese & others (catalog) 
The Girl behind the White Picket Fence, Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris, France (S)
 Heather's Dream, Short, German Competition Short Film Festival Oberhausen 
Multimedia Presentation with Artist Stefanie Schneider, Palms Springs Art Museum, Annenberg Theater
 The Polaroid Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, (G) with Ansel Adams, Bruce Charlesworth...

Fairy (Heavenly Falls) - 2016, 50x50cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Certificate and signature label. Artist inventory number: 1...

Jules and Jim XI (Days of Heaven) - 2009 Part of the 29 Palms, CA project. Edition of 10, 50x50cm, Digital C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and certificate. Arti...

The Signal - 2024 - 20x24cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the original Polaroid. Signature label with certificate. inventory PL2024-041. Not mo...

Wonder Valley (29 Palms, CA) - 2008 125x154cm, Edition 2/5, analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, based on a Polaroid, artist inventory numbe...

Untitled (Stage of Consciousness) - 2008 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory #6328 Not mounted. ...

Burned (Self Portrait), 1999 Edition of 2/10, 20x20cm Print on Velvet Watercolor, 310gsm, No OBAs, Bright White, Acid Free based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. N...

The Games we played (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 50x50cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 artist proofs. Archival C-Print print, based on a Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label, art...

'Untitled' 2013, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs, 27 x 21.5 cm, Digital C-Print, based on an IMPOSSIBLE 8x10 Colour Instant Film, Signed, embossed stamp and artist certificate. ...

Untitled (Chinese Classical), 2002 - Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs, archival Print, POLAROID 809 Emulsion Transfer, 26 cm x 32cm. Signed, embossed stamp and artist certificate...

Male Nude VI (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 20x20cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Certificate and signature label. Artist inventory number...

Over my Head - 2020 48x60cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the original Polaroid. Signature label and certificate. Artist inventory PL2020-941. No...

Gil at Twelve - 2019 - 40x48cm, Edition of 7, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Photograph printed on Fuji glossy paper, based on a reclaimed Fuji Instant Film Negative (not mounted). Sign...

Skylark (Stranger than Paradise) - 1997 43x59cm, Edition 3/5. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the Polaroid. Signature Label and Certificate. Artist Inventory...

Figurative, Polaroid transfer of a nude female PT 31, Made in 1996 9.5 x 6.5 inch image size 22 x 15 inch paper size signed & dated lower right Uniq...

Renée's Dream - The Boys (Days of Heaven). Part of the 29 Palms, CA project. - 2006 20x24cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs, archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signatur...

White Trash Beautiful I (29 Palms, CA) featuring Radha Mitchell - 1999 128x125cm, Edition 3/5. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, based o...

Part of the BLOOMY VIEW series taken in Bern 2020 in collaboration with Heym Collections, the images gained new life in their ambiguity, which often stimulates the viewer to project ...

Caitlin and Charlie (Chicks and Chicks) - 2017 50x49cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist inve...

Shadowplay, triptych, 2017, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. 20x24cm each, 20x82cm installed including the gaps. Archival C-Print based on the original Polaroid. Signature labe...

Vivienne II (Desert Nudes) - 2016 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory No. 18...

Motel One - 2019 Edition of 10 - 40 x 40 cm. Digital C-Print, based on a on a Polaroid. Signed on back and certificate. Not mounted. Shot 2019 on 600 film Motel One is a series of...

Kindling - 2016 20x20cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the original Polaroid. Signature label with certificate. Artist inventory PL2016-2002. N...

'Scream if you wanna go faster' - 2020 20x20cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the original Polaroid. Signature label with certificate. Artist inve...

Radha doing her Nails by the Pool (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 126x125cm, Edition of 5, analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on a Polaroid, Certificate and Signature label,...

'Untitled' by Stefanie Schneider (Beachshoot) 2005 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid Certificate and Signature label, artist Inventory Nr. 898.08, ...

Leaving Town (Sidewinder) - 2005 80x80cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory No. 3...

Untitled (Beachshoot) - 2005 50x50cm, Edition of 10, digital C-Print, based on a Polaroid Certificate and Signature label, artist Inventory # 898, not mounted “I never rememb...

All that glitters ain't gold, 2017, Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proof Based on a Polaroid, digital C-print, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL201...

Whisky Dance III (Sidewinder), 2005 20x24cm, Edition 1/10, digital C-Print, based on a Polaroid, Certificate and Signature label, artist Inventory # 3207, not mounted Stefanie S...

Fighting Back the Darkness - 2011 from the Daisy McCrackin Record Shoot 'God Willing' 30x40cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroi...

Cristal (Till Death Do Us Part) - 2005 49x48cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory ...

Blow my Mind (Till Death do us Part) - 2005, 50x49cm, Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Certificate and Signature label. Artist Invent...

'Daisy on Bed' (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 38x47cm, Edition of 30 Archival C-Print print, based on the Polaroid, Certificate and signature label, ar...

'A Wish II' (Circle of Magic) - from the 29 Palms, CA project - 2009 40x50cm, Edition 1/10 Digital C-Print based on the Polaroid. Certificate and signature label. Artist inventory...