Badwater (Memories of Green) - 4 pieces - 2003

Edition 10/10,
each 20x20cm, installed with gaps 45x45cm.
4 Archival C-Prints, matte surface, based on the 4 original Polaroids.
Artist inventory Number 1148.
Not mounted.

California Dreaming
In the Southern California’s Mojave Desert, the highways extend into the distance and disappear beyond an unreachable horizon. This is where the directors of countless road movies have found the perfect setting for their moving tales of boundless freedom: where the American dream merges imperceptibly with the distinctive landscape. This is the stage for STEFANIE SCHNEIDER’S fantastical, colour-saturated images, in which she reinvents standard Hollywood visions as serene, dreamlike utopias. To achieve this unique aesthetic, the Los Angeles based photographer deliberately uses Polaroid film that has expired. This ensures chance plays an important role in her work. The aged film causes unpredictable colour shifts which can sometimes lend the images a warm glow or produce powerful contrasts. In one of Schneider’s photographs, a veil of colour seems to float before the silhouette of her friend Radha like a velvety cloak through which her graceful figure glows in a soft light. Schneider understands how to breathe this magical intimacy into her portraits, giving them the feel of precious memories and capturing brief, untouched moments of intimate togetherness. The carefully composed photographs have a remarkable, snapshot-like character that opens up space for the emotions and events that follow. Schneider uses the individual moments to generate a narrative, pulling her works towards a cinematic storyline whose themes she masterfully identifies and deconstructs.