These photos are scans from a recent edition of the Sunday Times Magazine. I am reporting it here because the polaroids that are shown were sold at auction by Sotheby’s in New York by order of the court and they are important in the history of photography.
For more details, see my earlier article with a round-up of the latest in the Polaroid story.
Working from left to right across the three sheets:
LEFT
Top left is a self-portrait by Andy Warhol
Top right is a portrait of Farah Fawcett by Andy Warhol
Bottom left is a nude by Helmut Newton
Bottom right is by Peter Beard
MIDDLE
Top left is a photograph of a dog under snow shot by William Wegman
Top right is a composite face self-portrait by Chuck Close
Bottom left is a portrait of Imogen and Hermione by David Hockney
The two smaller shots are Patti Smith by Robert Maplethorpe
RIGHT
Top is Moonrise over Hernandez by Ansel Adams
Bottom left is Sentinel Rock, also by Adams
The small polaroid is also by Ansel Adams and is from the late 40s or early 50s.
My personal favorites are the shots of Patti Smith by Robert Maplethorpe, who in my view was a terrifically gifted photographer.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
After having looked them over a few times, the one I seem to be most interested in is “Top left is a self-portrait by Andy Warhol” – even though I probably *should* be more interested in Farah Fawcett
Still, if I take my wannabe-photographer-glasses on, the Warhol self-portrait has got my vote.
Thanks for sharing!
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It’s like a death mask – with his bleached eyebrows and hair he sure has the face for a portrait.
I just took a look at your site – lots for me to learn there. I am going to add it to the ‘sites I like’ section over on the left here.
Oh my, thank you very much for adding the link, I appreciate it
Be sure to let me know if you have any questions that you believe I can help you out with!
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It’s a pleasure – you cover interesting stuff.
Ansel used polaroid ? Hmm thats new for me.
Thanks for sharing.
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Yes, Edwin Land influenced a lot of people.
Amazing how photographs even when old make us still wonder how in the world they do some of these effects in photos. Very interesting post to say the least.
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My favorite is Dog under snow, and Peter Beard in first set bottom right.
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All of these portraits are really amazing but what hit me most is the dog under snow..it is quite melancholic for me..i am an animal advocate and i hate to see these things..
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I’ve got to say, the dog under snow photo is incredible! I’ve been staring at it for the last few minutes and I am amazed. It looks otherworldly! Thanks for this post
It makes me rather sad to know that my children will grow up never knowing what it was like to wait for photographs, to not know for day/weeks/months (depending on how long it took to complete a roll of film, then get it developed) if the photos turned out well or not. There was a certain type of joy I that I felt each time I opened the envelope with my photos in it and took them out to view them.
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I know what you mean, but once digital could achieve a filmic look, that was it.
No, there is no going back – and I have a Nikon FM2 sitting on my bookshelf with a roll of Reala in it that has been staring at me for a couple of months…
Great to see some of these shots again (I’m old enough to remember some of them the first time around!). I think the William Wegman dog shot is my favourite too.
I’m sorry to see the demise of Polaroid, working within its restrictions brought out a lot of creativity. Just the cost of the stuff was enough to make you think carefully about what you were doing.
It’s had some lasting effects on style; I first saw use of multiple photos to build up one image, now seen everywhere, in some of David Hockney’s Polaroid work.
I’m curious to know how long these photos will physically survive. I imagine that the colors are quite unstable.Have all the great ones been scanned?
Good question about the stability of the colors – maybe it adds to the charm… I also am sorry that Polaroid is no longer around, though take a look at my earlier article Polaroid UK may have a brighter future.
On the subject of multiple photos, I have taken some digital ‘panoramic’ shots by ignoring the usual advice about pano-heads etc., and just shooting a patchwork of shots and then building them up in Photoshop – a kind of digital equivalent of Hockney’s portraits. I’ll post some here sometime.
! didnt know Ansel used polaroid either! Huh interesting.
I am a huge fan of Polaroids.
I didn’t know the dog shot from William Wegman.
Thank you, this one is incredible.
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Thanks,
I just saw an exhibition of Wegman’s photos with dogs in costumes – it might me feel a bit sick. Still his photos of dogs ‘as dogs’ were pretty good. From the look of the photos I think all the shots were taken with a huge Polaroid camera.
I’d forgotten about Wegman’s photos of dogs with clothes on, not my favourites either. Elliott Erwitt was the man for dog pics.
Yes, and Irwitt was a great photojournalist as well.
Well ! the shots are immortal.. and many thanks to the organizers, because of them, we are watching this vintage treasure again… lots of praise…
I love to see nature in portraits so I’ll go with the third set of photos. Thanks for sharing!