Athena and Henry (Stay), from Ryan Gosling's memory sequence, 1999
Stefanie Schneider

Stefanie Schneider (1968) is a German photographer living in Berlin and Los Angeles. Schneider's photographs exhibit the appearance of expired Polaroid instant film, with its chemical mutations. It has been released in books and exhibition catalogs, and in her own feature film 29 Palms, CA (2014). Her work has also been used as the cover art for music by Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cyndi Lauper, and in the film Stay (2005).

Schneider's preferred choice of location is the American West (especially Twentynine Palms, California, which served as location and title to one of her books), and the mounting of sequential images in a panel, the photographs evoke the impression of faded dreamy film stills. She holds an MFA in photography from the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany.

Schneider completed 29 Palms, CA in 2014. A feature film, art piece that explores the dreams and fantasies of a group of people who live in a trailer community in the Californian desert. The project includes six films: "Hitchhiker", "Rene's dream", "Sidewinder", "Till death do us part", "Heather's dream" and the feature film "The Girl Behind the White Picket Fence". A defining feature is the use of still Polaroid images in succession and voice over. Characters talk to themselves about their ambitions, memories, hopes and dreams. The latest of these short film is "Heather's dream", starring Heather Megan Christie and Udo Kier, and was selected in May 2013 by the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and is also nominated for the 2013 German short film award.

In a review of her book Stranger Than Paradise, Daniel Kothenschulte writes in the German magazine Literaturen that:

Stefanie Schneider is an internationally known artist that takes analog photographs and makes experimental movies with them. Schneider has cribed some of the titles of the series of her enlarged Polaroids from her favorite movies: Red Desert, Zabriskie Point or The Last Picture Show. Even if most images remain connected to the genre of road movies—in one case one seems to get a glimpse of Ridley Scott's tragic runaways Thelma and Louise.

Collections

DZ Bank, Francfort, Allemagne

Dreyfuss, Bâle, Suisse

Schmidt Bank, Ratisbonne, Allemagne

Groupe d'édition Holtzbrinck, Stuttgart, Allemagne

Collection Sander, Berlin, Allemagne

Ocean Foundation, Zurich, Suisse

Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Allemagne

Impossible Collection, Vienne, Autriche

Collection Luc LaRochelle, Montréal, Canada

Collection d'art du canton de Zug, Suisse

Expositions

Expositions individuelles

2014 Motion Photography – 6 Finalists, Saatchi Gallery, Londres, GB

2014 Instantdreams, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2014 Stefanie Schneider, c.art-Galerie Bregenz, Autriche

2013 The girl behind the white picket fence, Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris, France

2012 Stranger than Paradise, Christian Hohmann Fine Art, Palm Desert, USA

2012 Stefanie Schneider, Gallery at Cliff Lede Vineyards, Napa Valley, USA

2011 California Dreaming, ROLLO Contemporary, Londres, GB

2010 Stefanie Schneider, Galerie Walter Keller, Zurich, Suisse

2010 Instant Dreams, Frank Picture Gallery, Santa Monica, USA

2009 29 Palms, CA, Moravian Gallery, Brno, République tchèque

2008 Sidewinder, Städtische Galerie am Mozartplatz, Salzbourg, Autriche

2007 Wastelands, Kunstverein Recklinghausen, Allemagne

2006 Wastelands, Zephyr / Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim, Allemagne

2005 Last Picture Show, Galerie Caprice Horn, Berlin, Allemagne

2004 Suburbia, Galerie Kuttner Siebert, Berlin, Allemagne

2004 Stefanie Schneider, Galerie Michael Sturm, Stuttgart, Allemagne

Expositions collectives

2014 Nude, Pop-up Art Gallery Berlin, Allemagne

2013 Images for Images, GASK – Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region, Kutná Hora, République tchèque

2013 The Polaroid Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, USA

2013 Road Atlas - Straßenfotografie, DZ Bank Collection, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Allemagne

2012 Polaroid (Im)Possible – The Westlicht Collection, Forum de la culture et de l'économie du land de Rhénanie du Nord-Westphalie, Düsseldorf, Allemagne

2010 Mapping Worlds: Welten verstehen – Aufbruch in die Gegenwart, 8ème triennale internationale de la photo, Esslingen, Allemagne

2009 True Lies, Kunsthaus Essen, Allemagne

2008 Les Rencontres d'Arles, organisées par Christian Lacroix, nominée pour le prix découverte

2007 Breaking the Waves, Arthaus, Los Angeles, USA

2006 Artists for Tichy - Tichy for Artists, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Passau, Allemagne

2006 Out of the Camera: Analoge Fotografie im digitalen Zeitalter, Kunstverein, Bielefeld, Allemagne

Land in Translation, Riverside Museum, USA.