For many photographers, the version of the world through a Polaroid camera is the biggest secret that we try to discover every time we invite a new one to appear in POTD. That search inside the piece, that innate obsession to investigate in the photos of another one that, like us, feels identified with the particular moment that reproduces the Polaroid, gives us a great pleasure to find photographers as Cristina Altieri. Her style, openly described as the soul of photography, represents the most intimate and most realistic part of each of her subjects: shadows mingle with the body, producing a mystical appearance with which we can all identify. Her photos are sweet, warm and comforting. She did not hesitate to share them with us to get presented here, and we predict a prosperous future for Cristina. She and her pictures – in our humble opinion – is already part of the history of photography.
The picture was shot using natural light with my SLR680 in the living room of my house in Brussels and with my friend and favourite model Riona Neve. I wanted it to reflect a certain fragility and vulnerability so I placed the leaf from a fern on her spine. ‘Fernweh’ does not only include the word ‘fern’ but is a term used to describe "farsickness" or "longing for far-off places, which perfectly describes my desire to travel and discover the world for the rest of my life. BIO: Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde is a self-taught freelance photographer based in Brussels. She discovered photography in late 2010 through her photographer boyfriend and after acquiring her first digital camera on eBay, quickly developed a passion for model photography. Nudes have always featured heavily in her work as she believes the human body is at its most beautiful in its purest form: naked. After becoming disillusioned with the growing trend of over-retouched perfect images, she discovered instant photography in 2016, and started experimenting with old Polaroid cameras and expired film. Nudes still feature heavily in her polaroid work, and she recently completed a five week polaroid road trip in the USA, shooting an art nude model in the stunning landscapes. Work from her polaroid road trip will be exhibited in Brussels in October.
Michael Behlen is a photography enthusiast from Fresno, CA. He has self- published two Polaroid photobooks–“Searching for Stillness, Vol. 1” and “I Was a Pioneer”, literally a boxed set of his instant film work. He loves the magic sensuality of instant film: its saturated, surreal colors; the unpredictability of the medium; it’s addictive qualities as you watch it develop. Behlen is the Publisher of PRYME Editions and a member of The Film Shooter’s Collective. Behlen mostly shoots nature and music scenes. The news to come for Michael Behlen is his contribution to The Film Shooter’s Collective’s new book NSEW Volume III.
Alejandra Burciaga, more known for her artistic name Ale Bu, descends originally from Mexico. The photographer lives in Barcelona since 2009, where she came looking for a life full of creativity, and since then the city has not disappointed her. What Ale mostly likes about analogic photography, and especially Polaroid photos, is how something which is so real, has such a dreamy, etheric result, of time without time. Ale likes to think that analogue photos are like poetry, the instantaneity in hand. In her own words: “I want to cherish the texture of days as sharply as possible and photography lets me. It was becoming like this slowly but steadily, until it became the prism through which I see life; and it is the common thread which weaves the stories together. The camera turns inward and outward, sometimes being a mirror of the most intimate and poetic moments … so many lenses that allow me to open my eyes and look closely to what is happening around me. Sometimes you have to purify the soul. Shake sorrows between shooting and poetry. Sometimes poetry is the only refuge … with this phrase began this story. With a love pain that became a tissue between that little black book full of Gabriela Aguirre’s letters and her “Itineraries”.
Sven Van Driessche is a Polaroid photographer from Belgium, who has participated in the Impossible Project since the very beginning of it. Sven tries to find the exact subjects that fit into the atmosphere of polaroids, he likes that unique vintage feeling. Cars, places, settings – everything vintage. Lately Sven Van Driessche has been concentrating more on shooting the human body, exploring its nature and experimenting with film for this. His models are quite international, and he is always seeking for interesting photography subjects. Recently, Sven Van Driessche appeared on The 12-12 Project.
Work of Kirsty Fenton is like the pop-art of Polaroids – solid tasteful colours, sharp textures, light and shadow play. Looking at her pictures is like travelling to a Wes Anderson movie, holding a red-and-white lollipop candy in one hand. The Scottish artist is based in Barcelona, and specialises in Screen Printing and Mixed Media fine art. Kirsty has worked with a diverse variety of materials and canvases for each collection and continues to experiment joining a unique combination of materials together. The main focus of Kirsty’s work looks into the manipulation and experimentation of fabric, colour, shadow and perspective in order to unveil a visual story about the subject.
Rachel Frank currently lives in Tucson, Arizona. She has been a photographer for over 15 years. Her first experiences with photography were in a black and white darkroom, using various black and white films, while enjoying the magic of printing and developing her own work. She studied photography at Lansing Community College in Michigan, USA. There, she would utilize process and print both Medium and Large format color and black and white films. Since graduating, she has traveled throughout the U.S, Central and South America and Spain. She has had her work published in online blogs, publications and zines and has displayed her photographs at several galleries in Michigan and in Tucson, Arizona. Her art has embraced mostly traditional photographic processes. Since 2010, her medium of choice is instant film photography for its tangibility, nostalgia and instant gratification. She began using expired Polaroid film and currently uses Impossible Project and Fujifilm fp100c films. The work she does is very intuitive with an attempt to evoke an instant feeling. Always experimenting, her work of choice is to create surreal moments by double exposing instant film.
Dobles is a series of emulsion lifts of color polaroids on monochrome polaroids. A portrait is by definition superficial, a two dimensional representation of a person. In order to show the person, one layer doesn't suffice. ‘Dobles’ is an attempt to show more through the juxtaposition and association of two or more emulsion layers. For the 'hidden' picture in the background only UV light was used. This light found in the part of the spectrum invisible to the eye, was meant as a tool to look behind, to see what was hidden. For this exposure the subjects were asked to look neutral or think about something intimate. For the color picture, they were asked to act ‘natural’ or smile, as they would for a normal snapshot. Both exposures are in fact somehow posed, there is no candid capture. But through the contrast or the association of both, a doubt is incepted in the viewer. The truth must be somewhere in between those. Or maybe further away. Bio: Urizen Freaza was born in Tenerife in 1982, since 2010 he's based in Berlin. He's a self-taught photographer and film-maker. Self-taught meaning that this is a path he's still walking, while hoping there is always more path to walk.
Philippe Galanopoulos is a 40 years old French photograph. He began his first photographic project (“Transitory bodies”) in the spring of 2014 as an extension of a set of writings dedicated to the Montparnasse train station and its users: travelers in transit, hurried workers or simple residents. After using analogical and digital cameras, he definitely turned to instant photography. To him, “Polaroid is both ideal as a tool (camera) and as a support (film)”. It fits exactly the needs of “hurry, urgency, poetry and mystery”. Nowadays, he’s working on different photographic projects mainly focused on portrait. His pictures are regularly broadcast on Facebook and specialized websites. Several of them are featured as “Shot of the day » on Polanoid.net and also as “Coup de Coeur du jour” on Polaroid Passion. In 2016 and 2017, he participated in collective exhibitions, including the « Polaroid Festival » in Paris and the « Expolaroid » exhibitions in Rennes, Nantes and Maizières. A part of his work was presented in December 2016 by the “Polaroid of the day”’s team. He is also featured in the tear-off calendar Photodarium Classic and Private for 2017 and 2018.
Anna Garcia’s work always rotates around identity and, be it photo or video, tends to work with everyday actions and situations in a way which forms empathy between the artists and the viewer. Currently Anna is a part of Escalera de Incendios project (with its base in Fabra I Coats factory), as a Culture Manager. One of her most recent achievements is the direction and production of Young Gallery Weekend, Independent Art Festival in Barcelona. In all her projects, both in cultural management or in her art, Anna repeats the same idea – democratising the art as something primordial in its discourse. A philosophy based on a high level of culture and education, and most importantly, accessible to anyone. Anna has participated in different art festivals and her curriculum lists various individual an collective expos, such as La Alternativa (CCCB Barcelona), Barcelona Creative Commons Film Festival (MACBA Barcelona), International Women Film Festival of Barcelona (Drag Màgic Barcelona), Les insoumises (Bordeaux France) and others.
The work of Ale Di Gangi is quite unique – at times you are left wondering, how can such heights be reached with a Polaroid film. Motion pictures, patterns, effects, double exposure, quirky portraits. Looking through Ale’s portfolio is like watching a very entertaining epochal movie, and experiencing all range of emotions – from empathy and compassion to appreciation and surprise. Originally from Florence, Ale di Gangi is a Polaroider, iPhoneographer, Lomographer and a videographer, as he defines himself. He loves all kinds of film, but mostly analogue (like us!). Apart from his passion in photography, which arose a long time ago when his father taught him to shoot and film in 8 mm, Ale also writes poetry, makes music, and blogs – a man of many tools. Ale di Gangi has exhibited solo and in groups worldwide (London, Berlin, Milan, Barcelona, New York, Los Angeles, Berkley, Miami to name a few), and today we invite you to have a look at some of his colorful and life-awakening shots (and do take a look at his Flickr, its fantastic).
Elizabeth Herman is a French photographer, who started working with photography as early as the 80s. Since then she has worked for many regional organisations as a reporter (Aquitaine government, Libération, Sud-Ouest news, Télérama, Virgin, Gironde Magazine, Nova magazine). Her work was featured in private and collaborative exhibitions in France, Italy, Holland and many more. Elizabeth Herman is a true Polaroid pioneer. She started working with instant photography in Berlin in 1994. For her it was somewhat a photographic diary for her travels, and things that surrounded her. She always used to keep the classic Polaroid 600 camera with her for the occasion of capturing something inspiring. Lots of polaroids Elizabeth makes are portraits. Very sharp, very precise – they capture a certain passion and human emotions with a quality that makes you go back to the picture and look in the eye of the person on it again.
Nacido en Alemania en 1974, al terminar los estudios de fotografía pasó largas temporadas en Francia aprendiendo nuevas técnicas pictóricas como aprendiz de varios artistas. De vuelta en Alemania se traslada al sur del país donde instala su estudio de fotografía y ejerce por libre como fotógrafo, diseñador gráfico y docente. En 2008 entra a formar parte de la Asociación Profesional de Artistas Visuales de Berlín gracias a un proyecto fotográfico relacionado con edificios en desuso. Actualmente vive entre Barcelona y Berlín.
Pierre-Henri Janiec is a Polaroid photographer from Paris. Self-taught in photography, he started shooting instant film for fun with a Pola 600 model. Pierre-Henri’s favorite topic is everyday life, like for many Polaroid photographers. Pierre-Henri likes the unique feeling and the sensuality of instant film. Everywhere he goes, he tries to capture simple moments with his SX70 model. The photographer likes to think, that one day when he is long gone, perhaps someone will find a box with his photos inside, and at this moment, all these memories will live once again, like a gift from the past.
Louis Little is a photographer currently based in Bristol, UK. He studied photography at the University of Plymouth in the south-west of England before graduating in 2011. In 2012 he began working for the British photographer Martin Parr as his full-time assistant. In 2015 he collaborated with the Impossible Project which resulted in the mini-series ‘Sunken Polaroids’. He is currently working on his first major project which he hopes to finish in 2017.
Lusy Incera Bustio, aka Lincera, was introduced to photography by a family friend, a journalist and a photo reporter, who instead of telling the typical children stories, told the girl the adventures and misadventures behind the camera. That was when young Linker got a Werlisa Club Color camera. Years later, when Lusy was 23 years old, she moved to Germany and studied at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg. In 2000 she moved to Barcelona from Germany with an intention: to enroll at the Institute of Photographic Studies of Catalonia. To Lincera photography is the language and a way of seeing the world, the means with which she expresses her mood and concerns. Her photographs are a conversation with the audience: “I see this … what do you see?”. That communicative game is the same as a musician would do with music and the listener. Similarly Lusy works with instant photography which she re-discovered and in 2008 in Paris, tired of the digital maelstrom. She has not abandoned any of the means of photography, but thinks that everyone fits its subject.
Jenna Mann is a professional art therapist, originally from Brooklyn, NY and has been using analog photography since she was 11 years old when she first learned how to use a darkroom in school. Since living in Spain, arriving in 2009, she has been fully dedicated to using a Polaroid land camera. Recently she exhibited her photos in a solo show in Barcelona. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a concentration in photography and printmaking, from Hampshire College in Massachusetts. She received her Masters in art therapy, from Metafora- IDEC/Universitat Pompeu Fabra and recently finished a Masters degree in Clinical Psychoanalysis at the University of Barcelona. In Jenna’s recent exhibit of photos she attempted to convey psychoanalytic ideas through her photos. Her idea has developed into incorporating some more complicated concepts that she has learned in the master she has been studying.
Emiliano Martín started shooting around 2001 when he travelled to Europe from Argentina with friends. A few years later Emiliano moved first to Spain, and then Switzerland where he resides now with his wife and daughter, and even runs an own restaurant to feed his other passion apart from photography – cooking. Emiliano says that he can’t really define his shooting style, but he enjoys taking landscape photos and street photography. He loves Peel Apart film, and in his own words: Instant photography is the best that happened to photography since the invention of it.
Herr Merzi (Stefan Merz) was born in Frankfurt, Germany. Stefan has been into photography since 2007 and since 2010 discovered the world of Polaroids and analogue photography. As he himself puts it, Photoshop free since 2013. Herr Merzi has been published in PhotoKlassik 01/17 (Germany), Mein Heimliches Auge 31 (Germany), Polaroid is not Dead#2 Rennes (Group Exhibition France), Expolaroid Nantes (Group Exhibition France), Taking Pictures 2017 – BlackBox Gallery (USA).
His work in the Polaroid format, is a mixture of art, pure sensitivity and an infinite play of light that does not go unnoticed. His eye for the perfect moment captures both authentic and energetic situations. His portraits are spectacular reflections of peace and through Ivan’s treatment of his models that peace is easily found in his work, very clean and harmonious. He´s a Photographer based in Barcelona.
Efrén Razkin, as the most emblematic memory of his childhood, remembers a game pretending to be invisible under the tripod, where his grandfather was trying to keep his Rolleiflex static. So, between games, Efren learnt that the photography can be a means of expression and hiding simultaneously. As many people, Efren started shooting instant film just for fun, but then realized it’s actually his calling and it’s a world full of varieties: integral film, pack film, sheet film, box cameras, SLR cameras, 4×5 backs for large format cameras and pinholes… Instant fun and instant learning, as the photographer puts it. Efren’s style is dark and mysterious, with a lot of things unsaid on the background, almost mind twisting. Currently, in parallel to his participation in the collective Ex Abrupto, Efren uses various photographic formats to develop his projects trying to explore the unsuitability of the individual to his physical and cultural environment, and how it responds in an orderly, violent or evasive manner.
Madrid, 1977. Artista multidisciplinar y escritor residente entre Brooklyn y Madrid. Aunque la mayor parte de su trabajo esta basado en fotografía analógica, gusta de utilizar cualquier medio disponible para comunicarse con un mundo que a veces entiende a veces no. Fotos, collages, videos, poemas, música o dibujos son algunos de los medios mas usados en sus exposiciones. Ha publicado hasta la fecha 15 albums, seis libros (tres colecciones de historias cortas, tres de poemas) y algunos fanzines con poemas y fotografias. Su trabajo visual ha sido enseñado ampliamente en países como Finlandia, España, US o Portugal y publicado en numerosas revistas como Vice mag, Dogway, Uno, Kinping, 7capas, Blast mag, Juxtapoz, the quiet life, Lamono o Bliss entre otras. Como escritor ha colaborado con algunas de las revistas mas importantes en España en los últimos años con artículos sobre música, arte y skateboarding. Hasta la fecha ha publicado seis libros, tres de historias cortas y tres de poesía. Algunos de sus textos están siendo representados por la compañía madrileña Los Palmeros.
Natalia Romay was born in Buenos Aires, and currently resides in Madrid. In 2015 she discovered the “handmade” collage. Since then, she often uses in her projects the images found in magazines mixed with pieces of photographs from her personal archive. Natalia moves through the territory of the imaginative and the tangible, she likes to play with the unreal in a leisurely way. In the fragmentation I find the meaning that later I add to the collage, recycling images to create worlds, rescuing the memories. “My focus is on what happens during the creative process rather than on the end result”. Natalia Romay uses her own Polaroid format photos, with texts as a poetic collage, relating the image to the word. The photographer is also a co-founder of the fanzine “Ropa Tendida” and the artistic collective “Algas en la Sopa”, both based in Madrid, Spain.
Anthony Stone lives and works in Pescara, Italy. He has been doing photography since he was a teenager, when his father gave him a Minolta SRT101. Anthony is the creator of “Instant 085 – Festival della Fotografia Istantanea“, a festival dedicated entirely to the instant photography. Anthony’s style are dreamlike images in which fiction and reality meet. By applying a poetic and often metaphorical language, the photographer wants to amplify the astonishment of the spectator by creating compositions or settings that generate tranquil poetic images that leave traces and balances on the edge of recognition and alienation.
Marjolaine Vuarnesson is a self-taught photographer born in 1979, from Paris. She began her artistic activity in 1994 with painting and sculpture, and she was only 15 during the time of her first exhibition. She put aside the paint in 2012 to dedicate himself to the photography. Her affection for nature and macrophotography oriented her work towards dreamlike and poetics pictures in which she staging herself with self-portraits. Marjolaine first worked with a digital camera, and then in 2015 she restart analog photography with the old Minolta of her grandfather and a Canon AV-1. She orientate today her work towards the film and old cameras, to take the time and the reflection to realize each of her works. She work with a SX- 70 which allows her to manage the composition of the image with its reflex sight. She explores the possibilities of the polaroid by making macropotography, double exposure, emulsion transfer on paper and composing with several picture. She tries to give it another dimension. Her works have been exhibited in Paris at Galerie Rastoll for 3 years, and his polaroid work has participated twice in the Expolaroid event in Paris.
Artist: Lilian Wildeboer Photographer Netherlands Tiltle: ‘’To Embrace’’ Camera : Polaroid image spectra 1200i Film: ‘’The Impossible project film’’ spectra Technique: Double exposure To Embrace is created true my constantly search for experimental photographic techniques. Experimental ways with old Polaroid tools and current technology. The coal is to use the light sensitivity of the film better.
Camera: Polaroid LAND180 & PolaColor 669 instant film [ expired 2002 ] Name: Lights test II Our experience with Polaroid photographers teaches us that lovers of this instant format have an incredible sensitivity. Especially when recognizing that by owning the limited time they have to create a photo and wait for the result, they manage to transform any scene into a piece of art, whose results, combined with the knowledge of their equipment and experience, are unique. YRKA.PICTURED, photographer of the Czech Republic, educated in the photographic art by his father, from who he learned the pure analogue photography techniques, starting to take pictures with 17 years using a MEOPTA Flexaret VI, curiously manufactured in the village where he is from, Prerov. A Polaroid camera was only one step away from that format and from a compelling reason that he assumed as his own: to use only format square frame. His private collection which he usually works with, covers a wide range that goes by the comfortable Polaroid 633 or Polaroid Land 100, but like us, his loyal partner is the Alpha1, accompanying him almost always, even to his work as a graphic designer.

The Decisive light photographers

September 30, 2017

#thedecisivelight

CAT // LA LLUM DECISIVA

Polaroid of the day ha volgut treballar el tema universal de la presència de la llum en l’art, metafísic o teològic, corrent de pensament dins de la filosofia estètica de l’Edat Mitjana que identificava la llum amb la bellesa divina. Cada fotògraf ha basat com a reflexió aquests postulats per ensenyar la seva sensibilitat divina cap La Llum.

ENG // THE DECISIVE LIGHT

Polaroid of the day wanted to work the universal subject of the presence of light in art, be it metaphysical or theological, a current of thought within the aesthetic philosophy of the Middle Ages that identified light with divine beauty. Each photographer has explored these postulates and their divine sensitivity to the Light.

ESP // LA LUZ DECISIVA

Polaroid of the day ha querido trabajar el tema universal de la presencia de la luz en el arte, metafísico o teológico, corriente de pensamiento dentro de la filosofía estética de la Edad Media que identificaba la luz con la belleza divina. Cada fotógrafo ha basado como reflexión estos postulados para enseñar su sensibilidad divina hacia La Luz.