Sonja Rieger

Donald and the Red Ball

This photograph was made at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which has housed one of the five or so Polaroid 20×24 Cameras since 1982.  The large format Polaroid Cameras, 20x 24 and the 4’x8’ room camera were developed in the late 70’s at the behest of Edwin Land.

In 1979 William Wegman was a visiting artist at UAB.  He had just come from using the Polaroid 20×24 camera to photograph his Weimaraner, Man Ray.  In the spring of 1981 one of Wegman’s photographs graced the cover of ArtForum Magazine.  In 1980 with support from a UAB Faculty Research Grant and from the Polaroid Corporation’s artist support program I used the 20×24 camera for the first time.

The Polaroid Corporation embarked on an extensive artist support program where they would allow artists to work with the 20×24 camera or with other Polaroid products in exchange for one out of ten prints made by the artist.  Their subsidies of materials represented the equivalent of a large grant and many artists received support for years.  Polaroid amassed a huge and distinct collection of work, some of which was sold at auction in 2010.  Noted artists that used the camera in the early years are: Chuck Close, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Dine, Marie Cosindas, Rosie Purcell, and Olivia Parker.  Each print is unique but can be editioned by shooting multiples, which obviously won’t work with subjects that move like portraits.  The Polaroid Corporations support program is unique and reached hundreds of artists. The work from the program much like the photographs from the WPA era, though not as extensive created a body and a genre of work that would not have existed without support.

The photograph is a portrait of Donald Moody who is a family friend from the suburbs of Boston.  He wore a bowtie everyday hanging off his collar.