INNOVATION / IMAGINATION:
50 Years of Polaroid Photography
on view through December 23, 2005

Exhibition Ticket Prices:
5.00 General Public, $3.00 Senior Citizens,
and $4.00 Groups (by reservation)
FREE for UK Art Museum members, all students
and UK faculty, staff and alumni

On a family vacation in 1944, Edwin Land’s young daughter wondered aloud why she couldn’t immediately see the picture her father had just taken. He thought it was a very good question. Within three years he had invented the instant photograph. Just as digital cameras and computer imaging has changed the way we think about photography today, in the 1950s Polaroid revolutionized the medium.

Innovation/Imagination: 50 Years of Polaroid Photography celebrates Land’s spirit of invention with a star-studded lineup of photographers who have experimented with this medium, among them Ansel Adams, Minor White, Robert Frank, Lucas Samaras, Andy Warhol, Paul Caponigro, William Wegman, Carrie Mae Weems and Chuck Close. The exhibition is drawn from the historic collection Polaroid Collection of more than 23,000 images.

A scientist who held art and literature in high esteem, Edwin Land said, “The purpose of inventing instant photography was essentially aesthetic – to make available a new medium of expression to numerous individuals who have an artistic interest in the world around him.” In order to insure that his products were meeting the needs of artists, Land started a tradition that continues today—hiring photographers to test materials in exchange for work. One of the first to test his new cameras was the legendary landscape photographer Ansel Adams. Polaroid photography not only allowed hobbyists to enjoy instant photographs, it allowed artists to see their work in seconds, radically altering the relationship between photographer and subject. The quality of Polaroid film also offered vibrant, saturated hues not found in other photographic media.

An extensive array of Polaroid processes are represented in this exhibition, including important variants such as transfer and image manipulations. The photographs range in size from small SX-70s prints to those made by the famous 20 x 24” format Polaroid cameras – so rare that fewer than 11 exist in the world. Innovation/ Imagination: 50 Years of Polaroid Photography is a true testament to collaboration between science, technology and art. Originally organized by Deborah Klochko at the Friends of Photography, San Francisco, the exhibition is being circulated by the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University. The Museum exhibition is sponsored by the Robert C. May Photography Endowment, the Friends of the Art Museum and Murphy's Camera.

Image Credits

Top left:
DAWOUD BEY, Josef, 1993
Polaroid 20x24” Polacolor photograph
Courtesy of the Polaroid Collections

Bottom Left:
ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE, Patti Smith, 1979
Film Type T58

Bottom Right:
BERT STERN, Louis Armstrong, 1957
Polaroid Film Type 53
Courtesy of the Polaroid Collections