Prestel‘s new book, The Polaroid Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation, is filled with Polaroid images from artists ranging from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol, Walker Evans to Robert Mapplethorpe, David Hockney to Lucas Samaras. From its inception in 1947, the Polaroid system inspired artists to experiment. Keep in mind, they didn’t have Tumblr, Instagram, blogs, websites, Facebook, etc., to share and exchange ideas as we do now. The book features essays about Polaroid’s inception as well as the marketing genius of the corporation, and artist statements from Chuck Close, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Miranda Lichtenstein, Catherine Opie, and more, citing how Polaroids have affected them in so many ways.
Two exhibitions have been announced to accompany the book launch. The first is on view now through June 30, 2013 at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York and the second opens September 20 at the Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.