29 Palms, CA - Self Portrait (29 Palms, CA) - Limited Edition of 5 Photograph

'29 Palms, CA - Self Portrait' (29 Palms, CA), 1997, 50x60cm with white border, Image size: 59x44cm, Edition 2/5, analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on an expired Polaroid, Certificate and Signature label, artist Inventory No. 123.02, not mounted The artist Stefanie Schneider has produced a unique body of work because she was the first to utilize expired Polaroid instant photography. Embracing the ‘imperfections’ this medium can produce Stefanie’s artwork was the inspiration of Instagram and the catalyst that motivated Dr. Florian Kaps to rescue the sole remaining Polaroid film production factory in Holland. Saving the last production equipment just before their planned destruction, therefore saving millions of vintage Polaroid cameras from obsolescence. Hows that for an artist having an effect on her medium of choice! The ‘Impossible film project’ saved the production factory and then a Polish business man bought ‘Impossible film’ and the actual Polaroid company to bring the two back together resulting in the so called ‘Polaroid Originals’ and giving it to his millennial son. (I hear he might also get Fuji film company for Christmas). Stefanie Schneider purchases Polaroid instant film and uses it only at it’s best possible outcome for her planned film shoots. The location, sets, costumes, actors and stories all come from Schneider but that’s just the beginning. The stories and their production take place in the high desert near Joshua Tree in California but the post production is in Berlin, Germany. The chosen photographs are rephotographed to make a negative. Following with the analogue medium, Schneider enlarges and prints old school in a self designed and built analogue darkroom in an old factory studio in Berlin. The largest of her hand printed art works measure 125cm or 49 inches in width with her vintage ‘Colenta’ developing machine. Schneider designed and built her own enlarger to properly fit her concept with the biggest ‘Durst’ enlarger ever built and turned on it’s side so as to print even bigger than was possible in it’s original design and rolls on custom tracks. Schneider created a film production movie set for her biggest film concepts from all her proceeds on an organic (off grid) farm in California where she eats only what she grows. Complete with garden, greenhouse and chicken coop. (It’s also a sanctuary for animals as no meat consumption is permitted) Vintage travel trailers dot the farm where production ideas develop. a costume trailer, film storage in the vintage refrigerators stuffed with original Polaroid film packs. Schneider’s feature film ‘The Girl Behind the White Picket Fence” took 5 years to shoot at the production ranch and used over 4500 Polaroid photographs shown consecutively with voice and music. Other films include; ‘Sidewinder’ - a love story ‘Till death do us part’ - a love story ‘Instant Dreams’- a documentary Stefanie is featured in Schneider’s artwork is on music album covers for Cyndi Lauper and the Red Hot Chile Peppers and hangs in Anthony Kiedis private collection at his house in Malibu. In fact the girl who played ‘the girl’ in ‘The Girl Behind the White Picket Fence’ was the mother of Anthony Kiedis' son. Ryan Gosling played an artist in the film “Stay” where all the art his character produced was really Stefanie Schneider’s. What makes Stefanie Schneider’s work so unique is that it’s immediately recognizable. Distinctively ‘wabi-sabi’ in appearance and content. Dream like, colorful with depth and vision. From start to finish, a truly self made artist with a distinctively female perspective.