THE MAGIC OF THE POLAROID

C/O Berlin is exploring the Polaroid phenomenon in two dedicated exhibitions – Wim Wenders . Instant Stories and The Polaroid Project – both running from July 07 to September 23, 2018.

WIM WENDERS . INSTANT STORIES

Photography was part of Wenders’ life from an early age. He received a Leica from his father when he was just six years old. From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Polaroids were his preferred photographic medium—a complimentary tool for research on his films and a daily companion. Wenders’ Polaroid photos are autobiographical, opening up windows into different stages of his life. They were a visual notebook, a field of experimentation, and travel report. The resulting collection of pictures includes thousands of unique, personal shots of his film sets and travels. They show Wenders in his personal surroundings and portraits of celebrities and friends including Annie Leibovitz, Robby Müller, Dennis Hopper, and Peter Handke. 

The exhibition Wim Wenders . Instant Stories, presenting a selection of approximately 240 Polaroids by the award-winning director, filmmaker, and artist Wim Wenders, will be making its first and only stop in Germany at C/O Berlin. 

THE POLAROID PROJECT 

A whir, a click, and just a few seconds later—without darkroom or negative—an instant photo appears in its familiar white frame as if by magic. The charm of capturing the spontaneous and uncontrived together with the speed of processing made the Polaroid popular among amateurs and professionals alike. 

World-renowned artists shaped the aesthetic of an era through their use of instant photography. In its Artist Support Program, Polaroid furthered the work of many artists by equipping them with cameras and film. The exchange between artists and the Polaroid corporation was the foundation for the spectacular and rapidly growing Polaroid Collection, housed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Amsterdam. The brand’s popularity quickly spread, and even achieved a degree of cult status, and today makes for a rich chapter of both photographic and cultural history. 

A longing for the unrepeatable moment, pleasure in the haptic quality of the image as object, and a certain nostalgia in the face of the daily deluge of electronic imagery—all these factors have given instant photography a new and irresistible appeal, even for the younger generation in the age of digitalization. 

C/O Berlin is pleased to present the exhibition The Polaroid Project, including works by Nobuyoshi Araki, Sibylle Bergemann, Chuck Close, Guy Bourdin, Barbara Crane, David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Rauschen- berg, Erwin Wurm, and many more.