Current Exhibit

Stefanie Schneider

September 1 2011 – December 31 2012

Stefanie Schneider’s photographs are narrative in their intent and construction. The medium (expired Polaroid film), subject, and their use in Schnieder’s time-based art pieces come together to create an entire creative suite working together and independently. Each series weaves together a story line and body of work that is instantly eye catching. Schneider’s focus on the Southwest, specifically the deserts of Southern California, imparts an anonymity and isolation to these narratives. In her Oilfields series, with a washed out color palette, and subdued, repeated imagery, we are presented with something else entirely. The isolation is tangible here. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the striking contrast seen in Schneider’s 29 Palms, CA where the desert serves as a blank canvas for the colorful characters presented. Paratroopers, Air Stream trailers, and bright tangerine wigs worn by actresses transform the desert into an otherworldly, time-warped locale. It is through these clichés and romanticisms of Americana that Schneider is able to maintain a glimmer of reality and grounding

the artist

Stefanie Schneider

Stefanie Schneider (born 1968 in Cuxhaven) is a German photographer living in Berlin and Los Angeles. Stefanie Schneider is known for using expired Polaroid instant film material to achieve an effect of washed-out colors and random artifacts from the deprecation of the chemicals. Combined with her preferred choice of location, the American West (especially Twentynine Palms, California, which served as location and title to one of her books), and the mounting of sequential images in a panel, the photographs evoke the impression of faded film stills. Schneider's work is internationally exhibited in galleries and private collections and released in books and exhibition catalogs. Stefanie Schneider holds a MFA in photography from the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany.