Polaroid Collaboratory

Polaroid Project: Six-week series of collaborative events which investigate photography. Workshops, exhibitions, commissions and performance events invole both the artist and the public. R. Amis, S. Back, G. Baker, B. Brace, J. Butle

 The third in an ongoing series of collaboratories, Polaroid was more than just an invitational exhibition. The core philosophy of the collaboraties was to provide a program format which would promote interaction between artists, and increased opportunity for dialogue between the artist and his audience. In many of the collaboratories, the process of art was of major concern rather than the product.

For years a futile argument raged between those who believed only in the straight, unmanipulated photograph and those who believed in the image itself and used any means necessary to produce the required image. The Polaroid Collaboratory exhibition included work from both schools and once again proved that either approach could produce magnificent pictures.

The Polaroid work, which came from the four corners of North America, as well as from abroad, showed some of the concerns being addressed by the contemporary photographer. It showed the position which the Polaroid photograph occupied in the spectrum of images from various processes.

Because of the small image size, many artists chose to deal with simple subjects in a delicate soft way. Particularly the SX 70 pictures, with their cotton candy colour scheme and their plastic depth, suited a romantic personalized statement. These images did not make good records or documents, for the very medium was too biased and predetermined in its statement. The medium was a great part of the message. A comparison between an SX 70 print and an 11'' x 14'' print from Tri-X revealed much about photographic syntax.

Many artists who worked with the small jewel-like pictures grouped them together into sequences that dealt with the subjective relationships between the individual images. Photographers have been more concerned with the series than other artists, since the foundations laid by Minor White, many have become preoccupied with the sequence. The largest sequence in the original exhibition in Victoria included 48 SX 70 images in one piece.

Other artists explored the altered worlds of the manipulated image. In some cases, they used both negative and positive, other times they altered the processing sequence which was intended to be automatic, and sometimes they altered the plastic emulsion by scraping, squashing, rubbing and feeling, by becoming involved with the tactility of the very material the straight image was expanded to become an abstracted, personalized comment or metaphor.

Indeed, others continued to use the instant nature of Polaroid materials not only as a feedback device while making pictures of static things, but also as a dialogue device with living subjects or processes.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the work submitted was that so little was erotic, for surely the SX 70 was the most erotic photo process we had seen yet.

Tom Gore, Polaroid Collaboratory, Open Space 1978

The exhibition in Victoria consisted of two installations in the 3000 square foot Open space Gallery. They ran from August 28 to September 16 and September 18 to October 7, and included a total of 280 pieces containing 660 images by 49 photographers. An edited version came out of the two installations which toured across North America.

In addition to the fixed exhibition of work, there was an exhibit of polaroid bookworks. It included work by Les Krims, Ansel Adams, Kelly Wise and Lucas Samaris, as well as two group portfolios that were published by the Polaroid Corporation.

Another aspect of the Polaroid process was explored in the Polaroidance, which took place on September 25. It featured dancers Peter Bingham, Helen Clarke, Jane Ellison and Ellen Pierce. An integral part of the performance was the use of the SX 70 instant image as a communication device and feedback tool between both dancers themselves and the dancers and the audience. As each image was ejected by the camera it was placed in front of a TV camera which transmitted a colour image to several large monitors set up in the performance area. Both dancers and audience were then able to see points of origin and departure. The improvisational dance evolved from the interaction between reality and the image.

Ken Straiton came to Victoria as a guest artist for the collaboratory. He talked with other photographers, gave two workshops in photographic seeing with Polaroid and also made many of the images for the Polaroidance.

(Gore, Tom, "Polaroid Collaboratory Catalogue", Open Space Archives, Victoria, B.C. Box 4, File 1978: PJ4)