Polaroid Photography: Recommended Monographs & Catalogs

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  Angelika Books Anna Bauer: Backstage Anna Bauer's Backstage is a comprehensive portrait of the protagonists of fashion in the twenty-first century's first decade: not just the designers but the entire cast of PR agents, photographers, make-up artists, art directors, editors and, of course, the models. Photographing at shows in Paris, Milan, London and New York, using a large-format camera and black-and-white Polaroid, Bauer decided to portray the diversity of the talent at work behind the scenes. "I got totally addicted to the backstage," Bauer says in the preface to this volume. "I wanted to show how much is involved." Elegantly designed by Fabien Baron, Backstage is divided into eight themed sections: "The Designers," which includes portraits of Alber Elbaz, Alexander McQueen, Christopher Bailey, Diane von Furstenberg, Dries Van Noten, Francisco Costa, Haider Ackermann, Jean Paul Gaultier, Joseph Altuzarra, Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, Phoebe Philo, Riccardo Tisci, Rick Owens, Stella McCartney, Tom Ford and Zac Posen; . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Fabien Baron. Introduction by Tim Blanks. Hbk, 10.5 x 8 in. / 304 pgs / 234 quadratone. Publication Date: 1/31/2012 List Price: US $125.00

  Hatje Cantz From Polaroid to Impossible Masterpieces of Instant Photography, The WestLicht Collection In the late 1960s, Polaroid Corporation founder Edwin Land initiated a project to invite more than 800 artists around the world to shoot on Polaroid film, supplying them with the company's latest products. Over the ensuing decades, more than 4,500 works, by photographers ranging from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol, were presented to the company and found their way into Polaroid's International Collection at their European headquarters near Frankfurt am Main. In 2008 Polaroid went bankrupt. The company was bought by the Impossible Project (who promptly invented a new kind of instant film at the Polaroid factory in Enschede) and its legendary collection was acquired by the Westlicht Schauplatz museum in Vienna. From Polaroid to Impossible celebrates both this acquisition and the launch of a new Polaroid collection spearheaded by Westlicht and the Impossible Project. It offers the first overview of the European Polaroid Collection, and includes selected Polaroid masterpieces by . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Achim Heine, Ulrike Willingmann, Rebekka Reuter. Text by Barbara P. Hitchcock, Florian Kaps. Hbk, 9.75 x 12.5 in. / 192 pgs / 230 color. Publication Date: 11/30/2011 List Price: US $60.00

  Walther König, Köln Horst Ademeit: Secret Universe From 1989 until his death in 2007, Horst Ademeit documented the presence of cold rays”--unseen negative forces permeating everyday objects--in thousands of Polaroids and digital photographs, as well as notebooks full of meticulously logged data. Secret Universe shows images of the cold rays” at work, in enigmatic images of street scenes, grocery items and bizarre measuring instruments. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited and with text by Udo Kittelmann, Claudia Dichter. Pbk, 8 x 9.75 in. / 112 pgs / 155 color. Publication Date: 9/30/2011 List Price: US $44.95

  Moderne Kunst Nürnberg Carlo Mollino: Un Messaggio dalla Camera Oscura Carlo Mollino (1905–1973) was possessed of both tremendous energy and incredibly diverse abilities: famed as an architect and furniture designer, he was also a writer, photographer, race-car driver and downhill skier. His private life was no less intense. Mollino had a closely guarded obsession with erotic portraiture, and would regularly invite prostitutes from the streets of Turin to come to his home and pose for him. The scenes were carefully prepared: the models would dress (or partially undress) in costumes, accessories and wigs that Mollino had acquired on trips to France or Southeast Asia, and pose before backdrops of drapery, screens and sculptural furniture. Despite the furtive circumstances of their production, these portraits express the aesthetics of Mollino’s more public photographs, as the models appear more statuesque than pornographic. Likewise, the opulent interiors and opulent furnishings of Mollino’s private homes in Turin, the Villa Zaira and what is now known as . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Gerald A. Matt. Text by Napoleone Ferrari, Lucas Gehrmann, Gerald A. Matt. Hbk, 6.5 x 9.25 in. / 220 pgs / 80 color / 2 b&w. Publication Date: 4/30/2012 List Price: US $50.00

  Hatje Cantz Sibylle Bergemann: Polaroids German photographer Sibylle Bergemann (1941-2010) made her living in fashion photography, but it was with her portraits of everyday life in East Germany over the 45 years of its existence that she gained acclaim. Nonetheless, she managed to make even her fashion photography subversive by East German terms, creating brilliant flares of color against uniform gray backdrops. It's the fringes of the world that interest me,” she famously declared, not its center. The non-interchangeable is my concern. When there is something in faces or landscapes that doesn't quite fit.” Well suited to such concerns, Polaroids have always occupied a place of affection within Bergemann's oeuvre; in these pictures, the artist captured more ephemeral moments and images than is typical of the rest of her oeuvre. Collected here for the first time, they record a vision without comparison in European photography. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Bernd Heise. Text by Jutta Voigt. Hbk, 7.5 x 8.5 in. / 200 pgs / 150 color. Publication Date: 11/30/2011 List Price: US $45.00

  Hatje Cantz Arno Fischer: The Garden In 1978, photographer Arno Fischer moved into one of the world's original live-work spaces, a farmhouse. He laid out a garden, a pond and aviaries, and began to photograph winged visitors with a Polaroid SX70. The resulting triptychs are published here for the first time. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Bernd Heise, T. O. Immisch. Text by Thomas Martin. Hardback, 13 x 9.5 in. / 92 pgs / 126 color. Publication Date: 7/1/2007 List Price: US $70.00

  Walther König, Köln Anna & Bernhard Blume: Polaroid-Collages 1975-2000 Anna and Bernhard Blume stage pseudo-paranormal events within typically bourgeois settings and photograph them with Polaroid cameras. The objects (dishes, plants, fruit and vegetables) and the protagonists (usually the artists themselves) are spun into the air, fly off, levitate or roll around, exposing that undercurrent of eeriness inherent to domesticity. This handsomely produced artist's book reproduces 240 Polaroids made over 25 years. . . . . [see book details]

  Foreword by Jean-Luc Monterosso. Text by Emmanuelle de l’Ecotais, Francoise Paviot, Anna and Bernhard Blume. Hbk, 13.25 x 9 in. / 160 pgs / 239 color. Publication Date: 3/31/2011 List Price: US $60.00

  JRP|Ringier Cyprien Gaillard: Geographical Analogies Described as a "world atlas against disappearance," this artist's book from Cyprien Gaillard (born 1980) presents 900 Polaroid photos, arranged into diamond-shaped grids, of architectural dilapidation, from ancient times to the present. Approaching the world as an archeological dig, Gaillard unites form with content by using an analogously outmoded instrument--the Polaroid--to depict these ruined or about-to-be ruined buildings. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Florence Derieux, Rein Wolfs, Susanne Gaensheimer, Adam Szymczyk. Hbk, 9.25 x 12.5 in. / 224 pgs / 105 color. Publication Date: 1/31/2011 List Price: US $90.00

  Walker Art Center In Your Face: Portraits By Dawoud Bey In his large-format color Polaroid portraits, Dawoud Bey aims to make an unabashedly lush and romantic rendering of people who seldom receive that kind of attention.” Some of his favorite subjects are streetwise African American teenagers for whom eye contact is a finely-judged art. They face the camera with a sort of edgy candor, half bravado, half suspicion, accentuated by the arrangement of the triples. This well-illustrated book is the first major publication to survey Bey's 20-year career and coincides with an exhibition at the Walker Center traveling to other museums across the country. . . . . [see book details]

  Photographs by Dawoud Bey. Contributions by Jock Reynolds, Kellie Jones. Text by A.D. Coleman. Paperback, 9 x 11 in. / 128 pgs / 16 color / 40 duotone. Publication Date: 9/2/1995 List Price: US $29.95

  Editions Xavier Barral Guy Bourdin: Polaroids One of the Polaroid's acknowledged masters, Guy Bourdin (1928-1991) brought to the medium an uncanny ability to combine the snapshot feel with a strong patina of glamour, and of course plenty of sexiness. A protégé of Man Ray, and best known today for his controversial fashion photography, Bourdin like his teacher often brought an edge of menace or discomfort to his eroticism, with surrealistic props and implied narratives. Like the Surrealists, he often devised ways to bisect the female form, usually by cropping out above the waist; all these traits of Bourdin's fashion photography are to be found here, in this selection of 98 Polaroids, most of which have never previously been published. Ranging in formality from casual seaside erotica to darkened interiors with disembodied legs and arms poking into the frame, these images step outside the safety of the fashion shoot, conjuring a real-life realm steeped in an ominous sexuality. . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Oliviero Toscani. Hbk, 6.75 x 9.75 in. / 128 pgs / 98 color. Publication Date: 6/30/2010 List Price: US $49.95

  Editorial RM Manuel Alvarez Bravo: Polaroids Manuel Alvarez Bravo is generally recognized as one of the masters of modern photography, and as one of Mexico's most significant artists. He is well known for his black and white images, therefore this selection of never-before-published Polaroids might be a surprise to those familiar only with his signature style. The simple design of the book--a single photograph per page, reproduced in the original Polaroid's dimensions--creates an ideal context in which to enjoy this segment of Bravo's work. Colette Alvarez Urbajtel, the photographer's widow writes: Although Manuel used a Hasselblad with special backing until his late career, when Polaroid cameras appeared on the market, he was quick to avail himself of their convenience and speed. He started taking black and white Polaroids with the appropriate fixtures, and then moved on to color. His work in color tended to be the result of some sudden impulse, when he had just supplied himself . . . . [see book details]

  Essay by Colete Alvarez Urbajtel. Hardcover, 8.25 x 10.25 in. / 96 pgs / 63 color. Publication Date: 6/15/2005 List Price: US $35.00

  Aperture Barbara Crane: Private Views In the early 1980s, Barbara Crane embarked on a series of photographs shot during Chicago's various summer festivals. Using a Super Speed Graphic camera and Polaroid film, Crane waded in close to the revelers, tracking down the details of their clothing, hairstyles and gestures. The images are tightly cropped and condensed and therefore terrifically alive, bringing us viscerally into the crush of people eating, drinking and enjoying the crowd dynamic. Crane's instrument of choice, the Polaroid, is of course admirably up to the task. As she comments, "The quick feedback of the instant picture is in tune with this energetic style of photographing. This immediacy of result shortens the time it would take my ideas to grow visually, technically and emotionally. What takes a summer of work with Polaroid materials would take three years of picture taking and darkroom time to bring my ideas to fruition." An incredible inventory of private . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Barbara Hitchcock. Clth, 7 x 10 in. / 112 pgs / 100 color. Publication Date: 2/5/2009 List Price: US $39.95

  Damiani Maurizio Galimberti: New York Polaroid… Italian photographer Maurizio Galimberti works exclusively in Polariod. His mosaics of square, white-bordered frames have captured personalities including Andres Serrano, Wim Wenders, Monica Bellucci and Sting, among many others, piece by piece. When he doesn't scratch designs onto the developing pictures with a stick or even a toothbrush, preemptively disrupting any sense that his work directly reflects the real, he takes hundreds of shots of the same subject and eventually assembles up to 140 in a single finished grid. His patrons have included Condé Nast, Rizzoli and Time, and, in advertising, Cartier, Rolex, Nokia, Fiat and Veuve Cliquot. This personal portfolio of the city of New York is full of clean-edged skyscrapers and bridges, limitless streets, multicolored signs, vivid people and limpid skies. Galimberti's Big Apple is thoroughly deconstructed and reconstructed, and the resulting unreal city corresponds perfectly with the soul of New York. . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Giuliana Scimé, Mariateresa Cerretelli, Franco Fontana. Hardcover, 9.5 x 13 in. / 260 pgs / 200 color. Publication Date: 9/1/2007 List Price: US $49.00

  Hatje Cantz Publishers Stefanie Schneider: Stranger than Paradise Stefanie Schneider uses expired Polaroid film to photograph her friends in wigs, in silver underwear in trailer parks, and on rooftops, in a retro B-movie aesthetic helped along by the instant-antiquing of the discolored film and by the fact that some of her models are genuine movie stars. Among motel signs from the 50s, palm trees against the blue sky, candy-colored limousines, a gas station in the middle of nowhere, we find young people who seem oddly lost, vacant-eyed--among them Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. Director Marc Forster has picked up on Schneider's movie-friendly aesthetic and integrated her work into Stay, his new thriller starring Watts and McGregor. Stranger than Paradise, Schneider's latest reminiscence of a Hollywood that may never have been, that may be more David Lynch and Last Picture Show than anything real, has been created and brought out in cooperation with Hollywood as we know it today, and . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by NoŚlle Stahel, Daniela Bosshardt and Dominique A. Faix. Essay by Eugen Blume, Marc Forster and Mark Gisbourne. Hardcover, 9.75 x 12 in. / 200 pgs / 320 color. Publication Date: 8/15/2006 List Price: US $55.00

  The Ice Plant Mike Slack: Scorpio In his second book of Polaroids, Scorpio, Mike Slack charts a familiar but undetermined terrain through fragments of architecture, geology and space. Designed as a companion to Ok Ok Ok (2002), this collection begins with what appears to be a fallen asteroid and ends with what might be a stray, mythical dog--evocative bookends to a kind of travel narrative (or psychic puzzle) in which Slack's mastery of the Polaroid medium infuses commonplace observations with hints of a lingering, otherworldly past. . . . . [see book details]

  Hardcover, 7 x 9 in. / 80 pgs / 41 color. Publication Date: 8/15/2006 List Price: US $30.00

  The Ice Plant Mike Slack: Pyramids Mike Slack’s Pyramids builds on the striking Polaroid aesthetic of his previous books, Ok Ok Ok (2002) and Scorpio (2006), rounding out a trilogy of stand-alone volumes that together contain 123 pictures. This collection records everyday details of what could be a recent past or a very near future--a dust storm in the desert, simple geometry, stairways and windows, schoolchildren on a field trip--quietly dramatic scenes energized by a sense of anticipation rather than nostalgia. Presented as physical artifacts of fictitious events to be deciphered by the viewer, the pictures also document the travels, observations and graphic fixations of the photographer, centering on a set of three identical early 1970s office buildings (in Slack's hometown of Indianapolis), from which the book takes its title. . . . . [see book details]

  Clth, 7 x 9 in. / 80 pgs / 41 color. Publication Date: 11/30/2009 List Price: US $30.00

  The Ice Plant Mike Slack: OK OK OK Originally published in 2002 by J&L Books, OK OK OK quickly sold out. It was described by Printed Matter as "a series of beautifully composed Polaroids. Sequenced like a dream, the nameless places and close-up abstractions...belong together but to a different time, or maybe a different world." . . . . [see book details]

  Hardcover, 7 x 9 in. / 80 pgs / 41 color. Publication Date: 8/15/2006 List Price: US $30.00