In 2006 she may have been known as a shooting star, but today Schneider is without doubt a well-established name in the international art scene. After completing a degree in photography at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, she moved to Los Angeles. Since then, Schneider has shot her dream-like Polaroids just a few hours’ drive from her hometown. For “29 Palms”, that meant a shimmering oasis in Joshua Tree National Park.

“I am a perfectionist, but I am perfecting chance.”

TECHNIQUE

Staged dreams, presented in Polaroid

In 1996, Stefanie Schneider bought three boxes of old Polaroid film on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Since then, her works have been easy to recognise, not only because of the typical, square format of a Polaroid, but also due to their surreal colours. This “look” of a Schneider work remains impossible to define, because the behaviour of the chemicals during development is so unpredictable. And yet, while the works retain an element of spontaneity, the content and composition of these fantastical images is anything but random: Schneider plans the costumes and settings down to the finest detail.

Stefanie Schneider defies common conventions when creating her works. Rather than handling the exposed Polaroids with white gloves, she throws them into the sand, changing their surfaces. Finally, she takes analogue photographs of the Polaroids in her lab.