Instant Stories: Wim Wenders' Polaroids—coming to The Photographers Gallery in London—offers a rare opportunity to see the personal and previously unseen Polaroid work of Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Wim Wenders (b.1945, Germany) and provides a singular insight into the artist’s thought processes, preoccupations and aesthetic inspirations.
While you have Polaroid on the mind, head to MelindaCamberPorter.com and look inside My Polaroid Selfies, 1981.
Melinda Camber Porter purchased a Polaroid camera in 1981. She was fascinated by the fact one was able to get instant feedback with a Polaroid camera and not wait days or weeks to get one’s traditional photography developed. She could now take pictures of herself and see if it showed what she was thinking. Today, of course, we call this a ‘Selfie.’
From 1981 to 1983 Melinda Camber Porter took approximately one-hundred-and-fifty Polaroid Selfies. She placed each of her Polaroid Selfies in chronological order into a three-inch thick, three ringed photobook. She was obviously fascinated with, and had deep interest in, what ‘Selfies’ showed about her state of mind. Melinda Camber Porter averaged one Polaroid photo selfie per week for three years, 1981–83, creating a ‘photo diary.’
With this new Polaroid camera, Melinda Camber Porter now had the ability to take a photo of herself in many different emotional states to see if she could capture the emotional state of her mind with each selfie.
