Museum

Current Exhibits:

Lucas Michael

Michael was inspired to work with this particular Polaroid camera because it was a favorite of Andy Warhol, who also has an exhibit at The Polaroid Museum. "Without Andy Warhol, I would've never known of the Polaroid Big Shot camera," Michael says. "This camera has a very specific set of parameters that allow all photographs to be uniformly composed and lit. This creates a wonderful sense of continuity within the series, and the physical closeness to the subject creates a sense of intimacy that I find very effective when dealing with celebrities."

Maurizio Galimberti

Galimberti began working with Polaroid cameras in 1983 after developing an appreciation for the cameras' immediate results and ease of manipulation. His new exhibit at The Polaroid Museum takes the idea of a celebrity portrait to a whole other level by turning their photos into an abstract, large-scale mosaic.

Galimberti pieced together small-format Polaroid prints that capture his subjects from all angles. The result is a fragmented, distorted, but highly mesmerizing image that truly displays every side of the celebrity. His portraits of Kate Winslet, Benicio del Toro and Javier Bardem will be on display at the museum.

Andy Warhol "Capturing Celebrity"

The exhibit features a collection of 50 of Warhol's most famous Polaroid photographs including a number of self-portraits along with several celebrity portraits including Dennis Hopper, Truman Capote, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Dolly Parton, Farrah Fawcett, Debbie Harry, Giorgio Armani, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keith Richards, Muhammad Ali and more. Two of Warhol's personal Polaroid cameras are also on display. "Capturing Celebrity" is organized by The Andy Warhol Museum.

"Behind Photographs" by Tim Mantoani

Warhol's 20x24 self-portrait represented one of the most ingenious and innovative ways for artists to capture the core of the creator. By turning the camera on the producer of great works - in essence, pulling back the curtain to reveal "the wizard" - the artist can become a part of their masterpieces, rather than apart from them. This is exactly what Tim Mantoani set out to do in 2006 when he began working on this project.

Marc Serota

Serota utilized a multi-step, image-transfer process to create a large body of Polaroid portrait prints, or "pictorial biographies," that showcase some of the entertainment industry's top icons, including Paul McCartney, Roger Daltry, Kenny Rogers and Gloria Estefan. Serota created his transfer art while on tour with McCartney. At the time, he was also doing editorial work for Rolling Stone and Details magazines, in addition to his work in the fashion industry for clients like North Beach Leather.

Maripol

Maripol was a hugely influential photographer during the 1980s when New York's Lower East Side was a hotbed of creative activity. A native of France, Maripol used her Polaroid camera to soak up the vibrant scene of the "see and be seen." Her camera served as a time capsule of sorts, instantly documenting the fleeting club and fashion cultures of the time.

Nightclubs such as Mudd Club, Danceteria, CBGB, Area and Palladium served as the homes away from home for some of today's biggest stars, though they were only up-and-comers at the time. Maripol's selection of 75 snapshots that will appear at the museum show a young Madonna dancing the night away, Debbie Harry in a red sailor suit and Andy Warhol walking the streets on a chilly New York night.

The Polaroid Museum Project

The Polaroid Museum Project perfectly marries Polaroid's past with the future of photography. Polaroid founder, Edwin Land, was instrumental in creating and molding the concepts of instant and collaborative sharing through the celebrated Polaroid camera and photo. Decades later, it's clear that Land couldn't have been more on target when he decided to revolutionize the modern imaging industry by making photos quick, easy, and accessible to all. 

Through the continued technological advances and growth of the social media landscape today, we have all become photographers. The Polaroid Museum Project, a collaboration with the #jj community (@joshjohnson on Instagram), honors this evolution through a multi-thousand photo mosaic of the Polaroid color spectrum and the Instant Storytellers exhibition which celebrates nine mobile photographers in different photography categories.

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