From July 7 to September 23, there are two exhibitions related to Polaroid at the C/O Berlin Exhibition Hall in Germany.
One of them, called The Polaroid Project, featured works by some of the most famous artists. Another, called "Instant Stories," showcased a series of instant photographs taken by Wim Wenders.
<h3>The Polaroid Project</h3>
World-famous artists have shaped the aesthetics of an era through the use of Polaroid.
Andy Warhol uses instant photography to capture the fleeting consumer culture and fashion scenes.
Dennis Hopper used Polaroid to study his films — for example, in the Colors series, he documented graffiti and street art scenes in Los Angeles in the 1980s.
Artists Anna and Bernhard Blume used Polaroid photography as part of a series of portraits created by performance artists.
From the classic SX-70 to the large-format Polaroid cameras, abstract images, interior details, streetscapes, landscapes, still lifes and portraits can be used.
In Polaroid's Artist Support Program, Polaroid has provided cameras and films for many artists.
When physicist Edwin Herbert Land founded the Polaroid company in Boston about 80 years ago, there wasn't a single photograph in the world that you could instantly image. Then Polaroid spread rapidly, and even some people reached the point of fanatical worship.
Today Polaroid is a chapter in the history of photography and culture.
With the advent of the digital age, Polaroid went bankrupt in 2009. But at the same time, the emergence of the "Impossible Polaroid Revival Project" saved Polaroid and reflected the strong return of instant photography.
The longing for unrepeatable moments, the joy of touching the physical image, and nostalgia give instant photography a new, irresistible appeal, even in the digital age.
<h3>Instant Stories</h3>
Wim Wenders was one of the representatives of the "New German Cinema" of the 1970s. He is a director, producer, cinematographer and writer. His film credits include Paris, Texas, Friends of America, Under the Berlin Sky, and Until the End of the World, where wandering and alienation are the eternal protagonists of Wenders films.
On the first day of filming in Wenders' road movie Alice in the Cities (1974), he used Polaroid to document scenes from American restaurants in the summer of 1973 — toast, ham and eggs, ketchup, drip coffee. The protagonist of the film also carries a Polaroid SX-70 wandering the streets of American cities.
From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, polaroid cameras were Wenders' visual notebooks, an experimental attempt and a photographic road movie. The resulting series of photographs includes his personal life during filmmaking, as well as his travels in Europe, the United States and around the world. The photographs include his private life, portraits of friends and party scenes, which he photographed with photographers Annie Leibovitz and Robby Muller, director and actor Dennis Hopper, and screenwriter Peter Handke.
The exhibition, titled Instant Stories, featured about 240 Polaroid photos selected by Wenders. In addition to photographs, the exhibition includes film clips from Wenders that use instant photography as part of the narrative.
Annie Leibovitz, LA, 1973, taken by Wim Wenders, photo from the official website of the C/O Berlin Exhibition Center
Last year, Instant Story was shown at the London Photographer Gallery.
In the exhibition hall, Polaroid is a complex existence. Polaroid photographs are often creased and marked, their color will be slightly faded, and they will evoke another kind of time, which is something that seems out of reach. What's more, they brought an atmosphere of mystery and romance to that era – even if they were vague or poorly composed. That's the beauty of bulky, hard-to-focus cameras. However, in the exhibition space, they are elevated to art.
It's a troubling shift and Wenders isn't ignoring it. In an interview with the Guardian, he said: "The meaning of these Polaroid photos is not in the photos themselves, but in the story itself. That's why this exhibition is called 'Instant Stories'. The catalogue of this exhibition is more of a storybook than a photographic bibliography. ”
Wenders also sees photography as a thing of the past. "It's not just the meaning of the image that has changed—the act of seeing itself doesn't have the same meaning." "Photographs for me are always associated with uniqueness, picture and composition. What you create is a unique moment in itself. Therefore, it has a certain sacredness, which makes the concept of photography disappear. ”
A few years ago, he gave his Polaroid camera to his friend Patti Smith, which seemed to acknowledge this. He said: "I'll never use it again. "
So "Instant Story" and everything it represents is also Polaroid's elegy. "Back then, it was part of everyday life, another way of living — like food, air, the stinking cars we drove, and the cigarettes that everyone was smoking," Wenders says. "Nowadays, making Polaroid is just a process.
The caption image is from visualhunt
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