WANAFOTO: Polaroid

Showing posts with label Polaroid. Show all posts

20/07/25

Polaroids @ Helmut Newton Foundation, Museum for Photography, Berlin

Polaroids

Helmut Newton Foundation, Museum for Photography, Berlin

Extended through August 17, 2025

The Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin presents a group exhibition, Polaroids. This showcase features works by Helmut Newton alongside numerous other photographers.

Helmut Newton

Italian Vogue, Monte Carlo 2003 (SX-70)

Helmut Newton

Amica, Milan 1982 (Polacolor)

Helmut Newton

Cindy Crawford, American Vogue, Monte Carlo 1991 (Polacolor)

Helmut Newton

French Vogue, Yves Saint Laurent, Paris 1977 (Polacolor)

With works by Jean-François Bauret, Michael Belenky, Mario de Biasi, Jim Bengston, Philippe Blache, Thorsten Brinkmann, Diana Blok/Marlo Broekmans, Lawrie Brown, Francesco Carbone, Elisabetta Catalano, Lucien Clergue, Share Corsaut, Barbara Crane, Davé, Alma Davenport, Jean-Claude Dewolf, Judith Eglington, Stephan Erfurt, Nathan Farb, Sandi Fellman, Franco Fontana, Klaus Frahm, Toto Frima, Verena von Gagern, Maurizio Galimberti, Luigi Ghirri, Ralph Gibson, Leonard Gittleman, Hans Hansen, Erich Hartmann, Charles Johnstone, Peter C. Jones, Tamarra Kaida, Sachiko Kuru, Edgar Lissel, Anne Mealhie, Sally Mann, Sheila Metzner, Nino Migliori, Tom Millea, Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Mark Morrisroe, Floris Neusüss, Arnold Newman, Helmut Newton, Werner Pawlok, Martha Pearson, Gérard Pétremand, Marike Schuurman, Stephen Shore, Jeanloup Sieff, Pola Sieverding, Neal Slavin, Christer Strömholm, Karin Székessy, Oliviero Toscani, Ulay, William Wegman, Mario Eugen Wyrwinski.

Jeanloup Sieff

Self-portrait on car, 1977 (Polaroid T665)

The Polaroid process revolutionized photography in the 1960s. Those who have used Polaroid cameras often recall the distinctive smell of the developing emulsion and the magic of watching an image materialize instantly. Depending on the camera model, some prints developed automatically, while others required the application of a chemical coating to fix the image. In this sense, Polaroids can be seen as a precursor to today’s digital photography – not in technical terms, but because of their immediate accessibility.

Polaroids are generally regarded as unique prints. This pioneering technology attracted enthusiastic users worldwide and in nearly all photographic genres – landscape, still life, portraits, fashion, and nude photography. Helmut Newton was particularly captivated by Polaroid photography, using a variety of Polaroid cameras and instant film backs, which replaced the roll film cassettes in his medium-format cameras. From the 1960s until his death in 2004, Helmut Newton relied on Polaroids primarily to prepare for fashion shoots. These instant photographs served as visual sketches, helping to test lighting conditions and refine his compositions. Despite their role as preparatory studies, Newton dedicated a book to these images in 1992, followed by a second book published posthumously in 2011. Some of Newton’s Polaroids, signed as standalone works, have since become highly prized on the art market.

Judith Eglington

Masked Woman, 1973 (SX-70 Polaroid)

Alma Davenport

Warwick, Rhode Island, 1978 (Polaroid T 808)

Steven Shore

Ohne Titel, 1980 (Polaroid T 808)

The archive of the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin holds hundreds of Newton’s original Polaroids. A carefully chosen selection from this collection has been curated and accompanied by enlargements of select works. The photographs are arranged roughly chronologically rather than by genre, but they reveal Newton’s extensive use of Polaroid cameras across all areas of his work over several decades. The exhibition is like peering into the sketchbook of one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. It invites visitors to envision Newton’s creative process, from initial concepts to finals images.

Sandy Fellman

Trophy, Tokio, 1984 (Polacolor 20 x 24)

William Wegman

Ohne Titel, 1988 (Polacolor 20 x 24)

In this group exhibition, Newton’s Polaroids are showcased alongside works by 60 additional photographers, including selections from the extensive Polaroid collection of OstLicht in Vienna. Curator Matthias Harder had full freedom to draw from this historic archive, which was saved from auction in 2010 by Peter Coeln, founder of WestLicht Vienna, following Polaroid’s bankruptcy. This international collection, stored at the Polaroid company for more than 20 years, comprises approximately 4,400 works by 800 photographers and has since been reestablished as a vital resource.

The Berlin exhibition highlights a wide variety of Polaroid processes and formats – SX-70, Polacolor 20 x 24, FP-100, and Polaroid T808 – as well as experimental treatments of individual prints and larger tableaux.

Pola Sieverding

Valet #54, 2014 (Integralfilm / Polaroid)

German artist Pola Sieverding is represented by her small-format SX-70 Polaroid series Valet, which features close-up views of male wrestlers.

In contrast, Italian artist Maurizio Galimberti is known for his monumental Polaroid mosaics, a physically demanding process in which he obsessively circles his subject – whether a person, a building, or a flower – capturing tiny details in individual images. He later assembles these fragments into unified compositions that appear three-dimensionally unfolded.

Marike Schuurman

aus der Serie Toxic (Bergheider See PH 3), 2022

(SX-70 / Inkjet-Print)

Two series by Dutch artist-photographer Marike Schuurman also explore experimental techniques, featuring inkjet print enlargements derived from SX-70 Polaroids. Toxic examines the lignite mining area in the Lausitz, south of Berlin, where coal extraction has left craters filled with highly acidic water. Schuurman photographed these artificial lakes using a Polaroid camera and developed the SX-70 prints in the lakes’ low-PH water, dramatically altering their colors. In her second series, Expired, the colors of long-expired Polaroid film merge into one another, creating a distinctive interplay.

Charles Johnstone

Lea, South Salem, New York, 2021 (FP-100c Polaroid)

New York City-based photographer Charles Johnstone produces small-format Polaroid publications at irregular intervals, each presenting a self-contained photographic narrative. Some projects, such as those centered on Monica Vitti, are captured as camera views from a screen and later bound into books. Other series, like Escape, involve collaboration with live models and were photographed en plein air at locations like a swimming pool in upstate New York. These projects result in unique artist’s books, some of which include C-prints of the Polaroids as special editions. A selection of these books is on view in a central display case within the exhibition.

Sheila Metzner

Michal, Mermaid, 1980 (Polacolor)

American photographer Sheila Metzner, known for her timeless and sensitive portraits, still lifes, and nudes – produced as Fresson prints – has previously exhibited her work at the Helmut Newton Foundation. Now, for the first time, her Polaroids are being presented. Drawn from the Newtons’ personal collection, these instant images provide insight into Metzner’s creative process, revealing her use of Polaroids as compositional studies – a technique similar to Helmut Newton’s approach.

HELMUT NEWTON FOUNDATION

MUSEUM FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

Jebensstrasse 2, 10623 Berlin

helmut-newton-foundation.org

Maurizio Galimberti: Polaroid Mosaics Exhibition @ Venice, Le Stanze della Fotografia / The Rooms of Photography, Venice

Maurizio Galimberti

tra Polaroid/Ready Made e le Lezioni Americane di Italo Calvino

on Polaroid/Ready Made and Italo Calvino's American Lessons

Le Stanze della Fotografia /

The Rooms of Photography, Venice

Through 10 August 2025

MAURIZIO GALIMBERTI

Charlotte Gainsburg

Polaroid plate, 50 x 50 cm, 2003

By Maurizio Galimberti/Photomovie

MAURIZIO GALIMBERTI

Isabella Rossellini

Polaroid plate, 2003, 50 x 60 cm

By Maurizio Galimberti/ Photomovie

MAURIZIO GALIMBERTI

Johnny Depp

Polaroid plate, 2015, 50 x 60 cm

By Maurizio Galimberti/Photomovie

Le Stanze della Fotografia / The Rooms of Photography presents the exhibition Maurizio Galimberti tra Polaroid/Ready Made e le Lezioni Americane di Italo Calvino [Maurizio Galimberti on Polaroid/Ready Made and Italo Calvino's American Lessons], curated by Denis Curti, organised by Marsilio Arte and Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

Internationally known for his portraits of celebrities like Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro, Johnny Depp and Umberto Eco, and for having published books and staged site-specific exhibitions on New York, Paris, Milan, Rome and Venice, Maurizio Galimberti presents some of his most iconic Polaroid mosaics in Venice – including Johnny Depp, Barbara Bouchet and Angelica Huston – alongside more recent works, some of them previously unseen, such as those dedicated to Taylor Swift.

Maurizio Galimberti (Como, 1956) in 1983 began to use the Polaroid camera almost exclusively, appreciating it for the immediacy of its results and the possibility of “manipulation”. With it he creates photographic mosaics, the artistic form for which he is best known. His expressive language mixes a sensitivity to the contemporary image with influences derived from the historical avant-gardes - Futurism and Cubism for shapes and spirit, Surrealism and Dadaism for modes.

As Denis Curti observes, «his works do not set out to reproduce reality faithfully, but are the product of an investigation of the visible, an operation of breaking down the world that finds its ideal instrument in photography. Galimberti takes inspiration from David Hockney’s photographic collages and is guided in his research by such illustrious models as the Futurist works of Umberto Boccioni or Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, inspired in turn by Etienne-Jules Marey breakdown of movement» (D. Curti, Capire la fotografia contemporanea, Marsilio 2020).

MAURIZIO GALIMBERTI

Messico (4)

Polaroid plate, 2002, 40 x 50cm

By Maurizio Galimberti/Archivio M.G. - N.308

MAURIZIO GALIMBERTI

New York Studio n. 10

Polaroid plate, 2024, 31 x 66 cm

By Maurizio Galimberti/Angelos Dimitriou

MAURIZIO GALIMBERTI

Taylor Swift (1)

Polaroid plate, 2024, 50 x 54 cm

By Maurizio Galimberti/Luchi Collection

The exhibition is divided into six sections: Cenacolo, History, Sport, Portraits, Taylor Swift and Places, each of which presents a different facet of his work and his approach to photography. His creations, characterised by a multifaceted and fragmented vision of reality, are taken apart and put back together as in a mosaic, offering a profound reflection on perception and on the multiplicity of viewpoints.

The images are almost always manipulated at the development stage, exerting pressure with simple tools – like pens and wooden sticks – directly onto the surface of the support, or assembled into mosaic-like compositions, in which each photograph contributes to the formation of an end result able to create a spectacular overall vision.

«His technical inventions, manipulations, ready-mades and mosaics – Denis Curti still observes – are none other than the metaphor for a transversal language that does not pass through the filter of rationality, and, precisely for this reason, becomes emotion. In every one of his photos there is a precise gesturality, a visual act that finds its synthesis inside the definition of «Instant Artist», invented by Maurizio himself to describe his production, because, when he decided to transform his youthful passion into a profession, he chose the Instamatic camera as his ideal instrument. In his hands, this medium goes beyond the purely descriptive detail, through a procedure that is calculated and always oriented towards the transfiguration of the visible».

Le Stanze della Fotografia

The Rooms of Photography

Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore

www.lestanzedellafotografia.it

Maurizio Galimberti tra Polaroid/Ready Made e le Lezioni Americane di Italo Calvino

Maurizio Galimberti on Polaroid/Ready Made and Italo Calvino's American Lessons

Le Stanze della Fotografia / The Rooms of Photography, Venice, 10 April – 10 August 2025

06/11/23

François Halard @ Paris Photo 2023 - Exposition présentée par la galerie Ruttowski;68

François Halard

Galerie Ruttowski;68

Paris Photo 2023

9 - 12 Novembre 2023

Avec Traces du Divin, la galerie RUTTKOWSKI;68 (Cologne, Düsseldorf, New York, Paris) propose à Paris Photo 2023 un solo show de François Halard. Une série de Polaroïds originaux côtoie de nouvelles impressions agrandies et modifiées par une intervention picturale et nous invite à un pèlerinage à travers ses images emblématiques - un aperçu de ce qui l'a le plus inspiré au cours des dernières décennies.

Les artefacts culturels propres à l'esthétique ancienne romaine, grecque et égyptienne en sont les sources que l'oeil du photographe et la main de l'artiste ont ensuite transformés. Les objets deviennent les fragments d'une narration que François Halard amplifie en ajoutant par des gestes intuitifs des coulées successives de couches de cire.

Les Polaroids originaux insufflent la vie à un passé lointain comme préservé dans la cire, révélant ce que la photographie seule ne permet pas toujours. Voyager sur les traces du divin, c’est être spectateur des interférences intimes entre l'artiste et l'oeuvre d'art, entre passé, futur et l’entre-deux capturé par l'artiste.

RUTTOWSKI;68

Cologne, Düsseldorf, New York, Paris

8 Rue Charlot, 75003 Paris

www.ruttkowski68.com

PARIS PHOTO 2023

Grand Palais Ephémère

www.parisphoto.com

05/11/23

Tom Wilkins @ Paris Photo 2023 - Exposition présentée par la Galerie Christian Best Art Brut

Tom Wilkins

Galerie Christian Best Art Brut

Paris Photo 2023

9 - 12 Novembre 2023

Mystère... mystère... à voir à l'exposition que présente la Galerie Christian Best (Paris) à la foire Paris Photo 2023.

Qui est Tom Wilkins ? C’est la question à laquelle Sébastien Girard essaie de répondre depuis 2011, date à laquelle il fait l’acquisition de 900 polaroïds énigmatiques, édités en 2017 sous le nom My TV Girls.

Cette série de captations télévisuelles légendées par son auteur, allant de 1978 à 1982, met invariablement en scène des femmes et se termine par le seul et unique autoportrait de la série où Tom Wilkins, se représente en femme. Retrouvée dans une maison de Boston aux États-Unis, l’acquisition de cette longue série photographique donne naissance à l’enquête presque policière que Sébastien Girard a menée pendant près de 12 ans afin d’élucider le mystère Tom Wilkins.

GALERIE CHRISTIAN BERST ART BRUT

3-5 Passage des Gravilliers, 75003 Paris

christianberst.com

PARIS PHOTO 2023

Grand Palais Ephémère

www.parisphoto.com

15/02/19

Andy Warhol @ Kasmin Gallery, NYC

Andy Warhol: Polaroid Portraits
Kasmin Gallery, New York
Through March 2, 2019

Kasmin presents an exhibition of Andy Warhol’s polaroid portraits, on view at 297 Tenth Avenue, New York.

Beginning in the 1960s, Andy Warhol carried a camera with him almost constantly, obsessively documenting both his personal life and the daily goings on in his studio, The Factory. These images, artworks in their own right, also acted as visual references and formed the basis of many of the artist’s drawings, silkscreens, and paintings. Highlighting the integral contribution of photography to his art-making process, Andy Warhol referred to his Polaroid Big Shot camera (which he purchased in 1970) as his “pencil and paper.”

Taken between 1974 and 1985, the works feature notable figures such as Liza Minnelli, Muhammad Ali, Bianca Jagger, Dolly Parton, Debbie Harry, and Robert Mapplethorpe, as well as a selection of self-portraits. Bringing together some of the most recognizable faces of an era, the exhibition illuminates Andy Warhol’s longstanding fascination with celebrities and famous movie stars—a motif that went on to define his oeuvre. Andy Warhol was sensitively attuned to the potential of the image—in particular, photography—to shape meaning and to both reflect and reaffirm the wider cultural obsessions of the American public.

Andy Warhol’s fascination with the transience of consumer and popular culture, as well as his concern with appearances and representation, make the polaroid a fitting medium. Notoriously socially awkward, Andy Warhol could use the camera to mediate his interaction with the world, helping him balance between inclusion and exclusion. These works, developed instantaneously, were born in a particular place and moment in time. Their rarity, coupled with the dwindling production of Polaroid film, capture a crucial period in Andy Warhol's practice and recall a nostalgic moment in the history of photography.

KASMIN GALLERY
www.kasmingallery.com

29/09/16

Miles Aldridge, Please Return Polaroid

Miles Aldridge
Please Return Polaroid
Steidl

Miles Aldridge

Please Return Polaroid

Steidl, 2016

204 pages - 29.5 x 29.5 cm / 11.6 x 11.6 in.

Four-color process - Clothbound - € 38.00

ISBN 978-3-95829-099-0

In this book Miles Aldridge revisits his Polaroid archive of twenty very prolific years of magazine assignments. Many of these Polaroids were intentionally or accidentally damaged while working on different shoots — trimming, adjusting, marking, cutting, pasting, outlining specific details in order to enhance, modify, reassemble or discard. Liberated from their original context, the images take on a life of their own and create an almost dreamlike narrative. By partly enlarging and arranging the Polaroids in unexpected ways, Aldridge treats them as singular, independent images that deserve due respect. We are granted a rare insight into a photographer’s storyboard and work process while learning to appreciate the importance of flaws and imperfections, but also of playfulness, on the journey to the finished photograph.

MILES ALDRIDGE: Short biography

Miles Aldridge, born in London in 1964, has published his photographs in such influential magazines as American and Italian Vogue, Numéro, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. His work has been exhibited in numerous group shows, and his solo shows include those at Brancolini Grimaldi in Florence, Hamiltons Gallery in London, and Steven Kasher Gallery in New York. Miles Aldridge’s work is held in the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and in the International Center for Photography in New York.

PLEASE RETURN POLAROID by MILES ALDRIDGE is published by Steidl :
www.steidl.de

04/05/13

Marie Cosindas: Instant Color at Amon Carter Museum, Texas

Marie Cosindas: Instant Color
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX
Through May 26, 2013

MARIE COSINDAS (b. 1925) did not intend to be a photographer. The eighth of ten children in a modestly situated Greek family living in Boston, she studied dressmaking in school and took up a career designing textiles and children’s shoes, also acting as a color coordinator for a company that made museum reproductions in stone. On the side, she created abstract paintings filled with atmospheric color.

Marie Cosindas initially thought of the camera as a means for making design notes. But as so often happens, several photographs she took on a visit to Greece convinced her that such prints could stand on their own as finished works. In 1961, she participated in one of Ansel Adams’s photography workshops in Yosemite Valley. The following year, when Polaroid sought photographers to test its new instant color film before bringing it to market, Adams recommended her.

Marie Cosindas immediately took to the process of instant-developing color film and, in so doing, proved instrumental in revealing the artistic potential of color photography. She made such exquisite still lifes and portraits that even Polaroid’s founder, Edwin Land, was astounded. This exhibition includes 40 of Marie Cosindas’s one-of-a-kind Polaroid photographs and is the artist’s first major show in decades.

Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX
Museum's website: www.cartermuseum.org

31/07/02

Acquisition of Polaroid by One Equity Partners

Polaroid Corporation and One Equity Partners today announced that an affiliate of One Equity Partners has acquired substantially all Polaroid assets, creating a new company that will operate under the Polaroid Corporation name. “Polaroid is a very special company with a unique heritage and promising opportunities,” said Charles F. Auster, partner in One Equity Partners and chairman of the new Polaroid board of directors. “The company has made significant progress since filing for bankruptcy last October in improving its operations and is well positioned to take advantage of future opportunities. We look forward to working closely with the company’s loyal and committed employees to maximize its potential.” In a joint statement, Polaroid Executive Vice Presidents William L. Flaherty and Neal D. Goldman said, “We are pleased that One Equity Partners shares our vision for revitalizing Polaroid. Our objectives are to build a profitable core business and realize the tremendous potential of our instant digital printing technology.” As previously announced, One Equity Partners will own 65 percent of the new company and the former Polaroid -- now known as PDC, Inc. -- will own the remaining 35 percent until distributed under a reorganization plan approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

One Equity Partners manages $3.5 billion of investments and commitments for Bank One Corporation in direct private equity transactions. Bank One Corporation is the sixth largest bank holding company in the United States.

16/09/98

Polaroid at Photokina 1998

Polaroid at Photokina 1998

Polaroid opened its Photokina’98 exhibition in Cologne, Germany, highlighting new products for amateur photographers and new cyber-ready imaging techniques for professional photographers and business communicators. Polaroid’s "Live For The Moment" exhibition at Photokina ‘98 runs through September 21.

For the consumer, Polaroid is extending its "Live For The Moment" lifestyle message with the introduction of new and enhanced products for amateur photographers and special niche markets.

New Cameras

At Photokina 1998, Polaroid is introducing the world’s first single-use, totally recyclable instant camera that comes complete with ten ready-to-go instant pictures, measuring 4-3/8 x 2-1/2-inches (11.2 x 6.4cm).

The same film format in an economical reloadable camera with its own unique contemporary styling also makes its first European appearance at the Cologne photographic show. Launched earlier this year in Japan, the new Polaroid JoyCam "Hippaley" (Japanese for "pull out") compact camera, like Single-Use Instant , features manual film ejection and a go-anywhere configuration. The new JoyCam has rapidly become the camera of choice in its premiere market among trend-setting teens and young adults, along with the new Polaroid Xiao (from the Chinese for "small" and "smile"), the world’s smallest Polaroid camera. Also a major hit from Nippon Polaroid K.K., the Xiao camera produces mini Polaroid instant pictures measuring 1.4 x 1-inch (36 x 24mm) and has proven to be the ideal portrait camera with photos being taken, traded, worn on clothing and attached to notebooks and schoolbags. The Xiao camera accepts new 12-exposure Polaroid "Pocket Film." The new, very fun camera and film are scheduled for global introduction in 1999.

New Polaroid ColorShot: World’s Fastest Digital Photo Printer

Following its introduction in its advanced USB (Universal Serial Bus) version in Hanover, Germany, earlier this year, Polaroid’s new ColorShot digital color printer premieres at Photokina ‘98 in a parallel-port version designed for "legacy" computers.

Polaroid ColorShot is the world’s fastest (as quick as 25 seconds) digital color printer providing photo-quality instant color pictures on the desktop using new self-developing Polaroid ColorShot film or Polaroid Image film. The new ColorShot printer provides a true digital "darkroom" for rapid hard-copies of photos captured on the Internet, from e-mail, from a digital camera and from scanned images.

Accompanying the ColorShot debut is the premiere of Polaroid’s new "Connectibles" series of "DirectConnect" cables with integral control unit allowing transfer of digital images to the ColorShot digital printer without the intervention of a computer.

Polaroid is demonstrating its new software called DirectPhoto that permits inclusion of photos in e-mail without the recipient requiring special photo-receipt software and for incorporating photos in desktop publications.

Extreme Films

Also on view at Photokina were Polaroid’s "Extreme" films: a sharper, brighter, bolder, faster-appearing film for Polaroid 600-series cameras and larger-format Image cameras (known as Spectra cameras in the United States) called Extreme Gloss; a matte-surfaced film called Extreme Matte for Polaroid 600 instant photography permits after-exposure creative enhancement with pen, pencils and markers; and black-and-white Extreme Monochrome film for Polaroid 600-series cameras. In the United States and other select world markets, Polaroid’s new Extreme film generation is known as Platinum (Extreme Gloss), AlterImage (Extreme Matte) and Black-and-White (Extreme Monochrome) film.

Newly Styled Cameras for New Customers, New Markets

Complementing Polaroid’s new Extreme film line is the new Polaroid 600 Extreme instant camera, sporting the recently Euro-restyled architecture of the newest Polaroid 600 camera line.

Also on display is the Polaroid SpiceCam -- the European hit in instant photography over the past year and the first Polaroid camera to be named after a rock group -- the Spice Girls.

BabyCam Kit Polaroid is also launching its first-ever "BabyCam" kit in Europe, which features a Polaroid 600 instant camera, an instant visual diary/album for "your baby’s first moments shared in an instant," and distinctive new packaging. The BabyCam kit is designed and packaged to allow retailers, photographic outlets, specialty baby and maternity shops as well as mass merchandisers to promote via point-of-sale displays the once-in-a-lifetime benefits of taking Polaroid instant photographs of the new baby.

35mm Cameras

Making their world debut at Photokina ‘98 are three ultra-contemporary cameras in Polaroid’s new 900 series. They include the 900 FF (for Focus Free) and 900 AF (for Auto Focus) -- both featuring an extra-large viewfinder for more accurate photo composition. The new Polaroid 900-series of high-fashion, high-style 35mm cameras includes the economically priced new Polaroid 900 Zoom camera with a macro-lens setting for dramatic close-ups and a 2:1 (35mm-70mm) motorized zoom-lens. All three new Polaroid 35mm cameras are fully automatic in operation.

New Polaroid Professional Films

For professional photographers, Polaroid has expanded the formats available in its latest highly acclaimed professional film range to include a new 4 x 5-inch

- (9 x 12cm) instant color sheet film called Polacolor 79 and a new 8 x 10-inch

- (18 x 24cm) instant color film called Polacolor 879. The new films, making their world debut at Photokina ‘98, join with the range of Polaroid professional "peel-apart" instant films launched earlier including 10-exposure 3-1/4 x 4-1/4-inch

- (8.2 x 10.8cm) films for professional photographers and for "Studio Polaroid" franchisees, as well as a convenient 4 x 5-inch (9 x 12 cm) Polacolor pack film.

Products for Retailers and Studio Express Franchisees

Bringing the latest technology to instant document portraiture for retailers and Studio Express franchisees, Polaroid is unveiling its new Studio Polaroid 302 Camera System featuring a handheld video camera with built-in LCD "pose preview" screen for passport and other document portraits; the economical new Studio Polaroid 350 Video Document Picture System for Polaroid instant photographic prints; and the ultimate digital "solution" for portrait documents and other client photo services -- the new, high-tech Studio Polaroid 700 Digital Document Imaging System.

Polaroid DirectPhoto software is also "bundled" in a new Polaroid Digital DirectPhoto kit that includes a Polaroid 600 CloseUp camera and a 20-exposure twin-pack of new Polaroid NotePad film, a dedicated "business edition" film based on Polaroid’s latest instant film chemistry.

Because of the film’s high definition colors and edge sharpness, NotePad film is billed as "great for scanning," affording the rapid cyber-transfer of visual information over e-mail, via the Internet or for computer-transferring both visual and written data (NotePad film features note-book-like lines on the lower white border to facilitate on-location notations or written cutlines) in a single visual/written cyber-document.

Additional Polaroid business edition films designed for both office and home use are Polaroid’s new Write-On film affording the ability to add notes or highlight areas directly on the matte-surface print. Called a "writable & drawable" film, new Write-On film can also be scanned and transmitted via computer using Polaroid’s DirectPhoto software. Completing Polaroid’s new commercial film portfolio is new Copy & Fax film, a black-and-white film that produces already "screened" instant prints ideal for photocopying and faxing. A built-in 85-line screen within the new Copy & Fax 10-exposure film pack provides clear "newspaper-like" photo quality images when received by fax or used to add illustrations to photocopied documents.

Polaroid DirectPhoto Imaging Software, the Digital DirectPhoto kit and new NotePad, Write-On and Copy & Fax film highlight Polaroid’s new Digital Imaging Center designed for retailers eager to service the growing Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) market and for retailers now servicing customers with office supplies. Polaroid’s new compact Digital Imaging Center merchandiser makes its world premiere at Photokina ‘98 as a customizable self-serve merchandiser designed to expand to feature such other Polaroid business imaging products as scanners, printers, projectors and the new multi-format range of Polaroid photo-quality inkjet paper.

Polaroid Corporation

www.polaroid.com

22/07/98

Polaroid PDC 640 Digital Camera

Polaroid PDC 640 Digital Camera

Building on the success of its PDC 300 digital camera, Polaroid Corporation today announced its newest consumer digital camera, the PDC 640 Digital Camera, offering consumers more features and better resolution for an affordable suggested retail price of $299. Leveraging its consumer and retail marketing expertise, Polaroid is leading the industry in driving digital photography to the mainstream, and is currently the leading digital camera company in the mass merchandising outlets.

“Based on the success the PhotoMAX digital imaging cameras, software and peripherals have had to date with consumers and our retailers, we will continue to focus our efforts on this growing consumer imaging market space,” said Steve Golden, senior marketing manager, Consumer Electronics New Product Team. “Polaroid understands the consumer’s need for easy-to-use, affordable technology. The PDC 640 offers our consumers a better value with a higher resolution digital camera and more features to meet the growing needs of the new ‘cyber-shutterbugs.’”

Polaroid’s PhotoMAX PDC 640 provides point and shoot simplicity and offers high quality digital images with 640 x 480 resolution. The PDC 640 features both an optical viewfinder and a LCD monitor that allows users to record, playback or delete images. The camera has storage capacity of up to 64 images (24 in VGA resolution), and includes traditional camera features such as a built-in flash and self-timer.

The PDC 640 is bundled with Polaroid’s PhotoMAX Image Maker Software, the fun easy-to-use, creative imaging software package featured in Polaroid’s new consumer digital product line. PhotoMAX takes the difficulty out of digital imaging with a new, easy-to-use, program for capturing, editing and utilizing digital images on PCs. PhotoMAX Image Maker Software combines six digital imaging applications in one easy-to-use format, offering consumers all the techniques needed to manipulate and experiment with images.

The new PDC 640 Digital Camera Creative Kit has everything contemporary “cyber-shutterbugs” need to take pictures and download them to the computer. The Creative Kit includes the PDC 640 Digital Camera, the PhotoMAX Image Maker Software CD, batteries, PC and TV Cables, an AC adapter, a wrist strap, Quick Start Guide and online tutorials.

PhotoMAX PDC 640 is the latest addition to the new line of Polaroid consumer digital imaging products that already includes the Polaroid PhotoMAX PDC 300 Digital Camera Creative Kit, the first truly consumer-friendly digital camera and software package.

Suggested retail price for the complete PhotoMAX PDC 640 Digital Camera Creative Kit is $299. The PDC 640 Digital Camera Creative Kit and the stand-alone software are available at major retailers, traditional photographic stores and computer and electronic stores nationwide.

To use the PDC 640 Digital Camera a Pentium class personal computer, CD-ROM drive, 12 MB of RAM, 60 MB of hard disk space, a color monitor and sound card are recommended.

POLAROID CORPORATION
www.polaroid.com

06/10/96

Helmut Newton, Polaroids, Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan

HELMUT NEWTON
Impressions
Polaroids
Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan
3 October - 10 November 1996

Polaroids. Helmut Newton exhibits his unseen Polaroids to the public for the first time. Taken during a number of sessions since 1989, these are quick snapshots that strike us with immediacy. The polaroid is a technical medium quite congenial to the artist because, as he says, “I’m impatient to see what my photo will look like: I grab the camera […] and simply press the button.” The speed of this photographic process allows him to capture a situation, an expression, a momentary sensation that would lose its spontaneity and freshness with a slower technique, at the same speed as the human eye.

Impressions. 30 ink prints measuring 1.20 m long or high, depending whether the image is horizontal or vertical. None of them has ever been published or exhibited before. They were printed by Helmut Newton by putting together various works of his from different times in his archives in Monte Carlo. Newton says that this project, which began on August 19 and was completed on September 20, 1996, is his most innovative work. They are “impressions” inspired by the quick-fire language of the sexy and sometimes pornographic writing in magazines such as “True Crime” and “True Detective”, or the novels of Chandler and Spillane, whom Helmut Newton admires greatly.

Torsos 1994, 6 silver gelatine prints measuring 1.20 x 1.20 m, exhibited for the first time in Italy. They are imposing nudes inspired by the classical statuary of antiquity and Delamare’s sculptures of the Thirties, full-scale black and white photographs taken in the Nineties featuring bold angles and rigorously white backgrounds that emphasise the clear chiaroscuro of the bodies. In the same room we may admire 2 nude portraits of Kristen McMenamy measuring 1.50 x 1.20 m, which Helmut Newton printed for the first time for this exhibition in Milan.

HELMUT NEWTON

Helmut Newton was born in Berlin in 1920. At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to famous Berlin photographer Yva, renowned for his fashion photos, portraits and nudes. In 1938 he left Germany to live in Singapore, where he worked for the Singapore Straits Times. He then moved to Australia, where he met June Brown: wife, friend, lover, inseparable advisor. They settled in Paris in 1957. In the Sixties and Seventies Newton worked for Nova, Queen and Stern as well as for the French, American, Italian and British editions of Vogue magazine. He held his first solo show in Paris in 1975. He has been presented with numerous awards: the 1976 Art Directors Club of Tokyo award for best photograph of the year and, in 1977-1978, the American Institute of Graphic Arts award for his first book, White Women. In 1978-1979 he was presented with a gold medal by the Art Directors Club of Germany for best news photograph. In 1981 he moved to Monte Carlo. In 1989 he was appointed “Knight of arts and letters” by the French Minister of Culture Jack Lang. In the same year he also received the “Photographers’ Award for Outstanding Achievements and Contributions to Photography During the Sixties and Seventies” from the Photographic Society of Japan. French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac presented him with the “Gran Prix National de la Ville de Paris.” In 1991 he was awarded the “World Image Award” in New York for best photographic portrait, and the following year the German government presented him with a prize and he was appointed “Knight of arts, letters and sciences” by Princess Caroline of Monaco. He has held exhibitions all over the world. He now lives and works in Monte Carlo and Los Angeles. Few famous people today have not been immortalised by his ironic, talented lens: from Catherine Deneuve to Elisabeth Taylor, from Mick Jagger to Jack Nicholson, from Paloma Picasso to Charlotte Rampling. But it is above all his monumental black and white nudes that strike the collective imagination and present a new image of woman that has emerged since the Eighties: cold and confident, dedicated to the cult of the body and aware of her erotic impact. In these shocking images of athletes and amazons we find both the expressive power of the cinema and a decadent opulence bounding upon fetishism, an aggressive and transgressive imagination, a surprising and unmatched elegance. His most famous photographs are marked by the most explicit and the most ambiguous sexuality. Galleria Carla Sozzani presented a series of his portraits of women in 1993 (January 14 to February 27).

Galleria Carla Sozzani
Corso Como 10 - 20154 Milano, Italia
www.galleriacarlasozzani.org

18/08/96

Luigi Ghirri / Aldo Rossi, Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Montréal - Des choses qui ne sont qu'elles-mêmes

Luigi Ghirri / Aldo Rossi : Des choses qui ne sont qu'elles-mêmes
Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Montréal
21 août - 24 novembre 1996

« Il existe à Ispahan une mosquée à l'intérieur de laquelle, lorsqu'on se place en un point précis, le moindre son, un simple mot aussi bien que le claquement des doigts, est répercuté sept fois par l'écho. L'architecture de Rossi me procure cette même impression d'émerveillement : en quelque point que ce soit, lorsqu'on se déplace dans l'espace ou sous l'effet de la lumière changeante, elle devient comme la propagation et la multiplication d'un écho qui se réverbère sur les souvenirs et les inventions. »

- Luigi Ghirri

Le Centre Canadien d'Architecture présente l'exposition Luigi Ghirri / Aldo Rossi : Des choses qui ne sont qu'elles-mêmes. L'exposition réunit une sélection critique de 39 photographies du regretté Luigi Ghirri sur l'oeuvre architecturale d'Aldo Rossi, ainsi qu'un montage de photographies polaroïds réalisées par Aldo Rossi et qui sont montrées au public pour la première fois.

Luigi Ghirri / Aldo Rossi : Des choses qui ne sont qu'elles-mêmes inaugure une série d'expositions du CCA où est explorée la rencontre de l'architecture et de la photographie, par rapport à leur lien avec le développement et la perception de l'environnement bâti à notre époque. L'exposition est conçue comme un dialogue visuel entre deux figures majeures de l'art et de la culture de l'Italie contemporaine. Cet échange entre le photographe et l'architecte est placé sous le signe d'une profonde affinité, qui découle de leur attrait commun pour une région - la plaine padane du nord de l'Italie - et d'une même foi aussi bien dans le regard autonome du photographe que dans la possibilité de ce regard de révéler à l'architecte de nouveaux aspects de son oeuvre.

Luigi Ghirri a découvert les oeuvres d'Aldo Rossi à la fin des années 70, à l'occasion d'un voyage dont le but initial était de parcourir les paysages de la vallée du Pô. Ces oeuvres l'avaient ébahi, ainsi qu'il le rappelait plus tard, « non pas parce qu'elles appartenaient à la catégorie de l'insolite ou de l'abscons, mais en raison de leur apparence immédiatement familière et en même temps mystérieuse : une fusion extraordinaire du retrouvé et du jamais vu, du connu et de l'inconnu ». Il admirait également « le courage et la civilité avec lesquels Rossi s'était oublié lui-même afin de laisser à l'espace, aux matériaux et aux volumes la tâche de devenir pour nous architecture, afin de laisser le temps et l'usage donner [à celle-ci] un sens ».

Avec ses photographies du cimetière de Modène, en 1983, Luigi Ghirri commençait un examen de l'oeuvre d'Aldo Rossi qui allait s'approfondir - pendant les neuf dernières années de sa vie - sous la forme d'un dialogue intense, au cours duquel l'architecte comme le photographe verraient avancer leurs idées respectives dans des directions inattendues. Pour Luigi Ghirri, la découverte des oeuvres de Rossi transforma l'idée qu'il se faisait de la photographie d'architecture; jusque-là il n'avait vu dans cette photographie qu'un ensemble de conventions usées, la dernière étape du processus d'authentification de l'oeuvre architecturale - depuis l'élaboration du concept jusqu'à la réalisation publiée -, et des images qui, se voulant une iconographie statique et précise, s'apparentaient à des « natures mortes » - elles ressemblaient à des photographies de maquettes plus que de bâtiments réels. Confronté à la simplicité manifeste et à la linéarité des constructions d'Aldo Rossi, Luigi Ghirri a pris conscience de leur vitalité intrinsèque, et il s'est attaché à rendre les surprises et les variations produites par les modifications de la lumière, par les moindres changements de position dans l'espace, et par les résonances inattendues entre un bâtiment et son environnement. À mesure que s'approfondissait son examen de ces oeuvres, Luigi Ghirri en vint à faire sienne également la recherche poursuivie par Rossi sur les éléments de la forme, et à mettre au jour, en redécouvrant ces éléments, des strates de mémoire, de mélancolie et de sens.

L'oeuvre qui en résulte - la recherche de l'inattendu, le rejet de toute forme de choc visuel ou émotif, la construction d'images rigoureusement frontales - réaffirme l'autonomie de l'observateur en même temps qu'elle découvre le caractère autonome de l'objet observé. Rossi n'a pas tardé à reconnaître dans l'oeuvre de Luigi Ghirri un « discours » sur son propre discours, et à convenir de ce qu'il pouvait en tirer : « Les photos de Ghirri, celles de mon oeuvre aussi bien que de mon atelier, représentent ce que je cherchais sans le trouver ». Dans sa lecture à son tour de l'oeuvre de Luigi Ghirri, et dans la représentation qu'elle donnait des caractéristiques essentielles de son architecture, Rossi a trouvé une nouvelle force symbolique : loin d'épuiser ses formes, l'oeuvre de Luigi Ghirri lui révélait dans celles-ci un « univers de signes rigoureusement choisis... des figures dépouillées et essentielles... la langue dans laquelle parlent les choses muettes ».

Il n'est pas étonnant que Luigi Ghirri ait manifesté le plus vif intérêt pour les polaroïds qu'avait réalisés Aldo Rossi dans les décennies précédentes, car il y voyait une passion cachée, les images « secrètes » de l'architecte. Ces polaroïds réunissent indifféremment des façades anonymes et les réalisations de l'architecte, des images sacrées et des affiches publicitaires, les maisons et les intérieurs d'un village de shakers et les façades baroques des églises de Lecce. Luigi Ghirri aurait dit de ces images, citant une phrase qu'il aimait à répéter pour définir la photographie, que ce sont « des énigmes qui se résolvent avec le coeur ». Ces séquences d'images représentaient pour lui « un enchevêtrement de monuments, de lumières, de pensées, d'objets, de moments, d'analogies qui forment notre paysage mental, celui que nous cherchons, quoique inconsciemment, chaque fois que nous regardons par une fenêtre, par une ouverture sur le monde extérieur, comme feraient les points d'une boussole imaginaire qui indiquerait une direction possible ».

Paolo Costantini, conservateur de la collection de photographies du CCA, est commissaire de l'exposition Luigi Ghirri / Aldo Rossi : Des choses qui ne sont qu'elles-mêmes.

Le catalogue qui accompagne l'exposition, coédité par le CCA et la maison Electa, reproduit toutes les photographies présentées dans l'exposition et comprend une préface de Phyllis Lambert, Directeur du CCA, un essai introductif du commissaire, Paolo Costantini, un texte de Luigi Ghirri sur Rossi et un texte d'Aldo Rossi sur Ghirri, écrit spécialement pour cette occasion. Offert à 34,95 $ dans une édition française, anglaise et italienne, le livre de 84 pages est en vente à la Librairie du CCA.

CCA - CENTRE CANADIEN D'ARCHITECTURE
1920, rue Baile, Montréal, Québec H3H 2S6
www.cca.qc.ca

13/03/96

Polaroid PDC-2000 Digital Camera

Polaroid PDC-2000 Digital Camera

Polaroid Corporation introduced its first digital camera: the PDC-2000. The PDC-2000 is the only digital camera to combine professional-quality images with the ease-of-use features of a fully automatic camera, at a much lower price than other high-end digital cameras.

Featuring a "megapixel" sensor based on Polaroid's imaging science technology, the sleek-designed PDC-2000 captures sharp, vibrant, 24-bit color digital images that can be easily transferred to any computer or printed at a resolution level as high as 1600 x 1200 pixels.

"The PDC-2000 combines the ease-of-use features of a fully automatic camera with the look, feel and quality of a single-lens-reflex camera," said Henry Ancona, Polaroid executive vice president. "The PDC-2000 captures professional-quality images for professionals in business and government who cannot afford to sacrifice image quality when they convert to digital photography. Like all Polaroid electronic imaging products, the PDC-2000 gives customers a higher quality imaging tool at a lower cost than the competition."

Unlike other digital cameras, PDC-2000 images are not compressed, so there is no loss of image data or visual quality. With one million pixels of image data per shot, PDC-2000 images look great even when enlarged to 8 x 10.

With such superior image quality, PDC-2000 images can be used in many business, commercial and professional applications, including desktop publishing, graphics, print production, advertising, government, law enforcement, image archiving, security and identification, entertainment, multimedia programs, World Wide Web development and many more.

In features and operation, the PDC-2000 is very similar to an easy-to-use, compact 35mm point-and-shoot, including automatic exposure control, auto-focus and automatic flash up to 15 feet. Users can also manually control the flash and backlight conditions and set the cameras for shots in different types of lighting, such as incandescent or fluorescent.

The PDC-2000 comes in three different models offering customers a choice of storage options to meet their particular imaging needs. Customers can select a model that stores either 40 images, 60 images, or a 'direct connect' version that relies on a computer for storing images. Pictures are captured at the original one million pixel resolution and can be transferred to any computer system at 1600 x 1200 super high resolution or 800 x 600 high resolution.

Each image is automatically recorded with the date and time and can be labeled with letters or numbers for easy identification when transferred to any Macintosh or Windows compatible computer. Pictures can be deleted one-at-a-time or all at once and retaken on-the-spot.

Lightweight and portable, the PDC-2000 has an optical viewfinder and comes with a 38mm equivalent lens that focuses from 10 inches to infinity. An optional 60mm equivalent lens that focuses from 24 inches to infinity is also available.

An LCD status panel on the top of the cameras provides feedback on all camera functions and conditions, such as battery power, number of images taken, time and date, and exposure settings.

All PDC-2000 models use a SCSI-2 interface to ensure fast image transfer in a matter of seconds from camera to computer. An optional PCMCIA to SCSI adapter is available for connection to portable PCs through a PCMCIA slot.

Users can preview, transfer and save images using Polaroid PDC-2000 Direct software that comes with the camera. Accessories include a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop for Windows and Macintosh and a TWAIN driver for Windows applications. The PDC-2000 comes with four rechargeable AA NiCad batteries, a lens cap and neck and hand straps for easy carrying and shooting.

The charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor used in the PDC-2000 was designed by Polaroid and is manufactured by IBM's Microelectronics Division in Vermont. The cameras are assembled and manufactured by Polaroid in the United States.

The 40 megabyte PDC-2000 camera system has a U.S. suggested list price of $3,695 while the 60 megabyte version is $4,995 and the direct connect model is $2,995. International prices vary and are available by calling a Polaroid dealer in each respective region. Worldwide shipments are scheduled to begin within the next 90 days.

The cameras come with a 12-month warranty and Polaroid Total Satisfaction Guarantee, allowing any product to be returned within 30 days. Part of an exciting line-up of electronic imaging products from Polaroid, the PDC-2000 line will be available through authorized Polaroid resellers and other computer and photographic product dealer.

Polaroid Corporation
www.polaroid.com