Peeling Apart the Image: An Art History of the Polaroid

Online, via Zoom

Dawoud Bey’s Polaroid photographs from the 1980s and '90s anchor this lecture with teaching fellow Ayanna Dozier. Bey made street portraits using Polaroid Type 55 film, generating instant pictures he gave to his subjects as well as negatives to use for additional prints. His investment in the medium continued with studio portraits created with the gargantuan 20 × 24-inch camera, available to him through Polaroid’s Artist Support Program. In these works, painstaking craft coexists with the intimacy often associated with everyday Polaroid photography.

The talk will explore the productive tensions between immediacy, process, singularity, and reciprocity in these series. Works by Whitney collection artists such as Nan Goldin, Lorna Simpson, and Andy Warhol, as well as photographs by Cathleen Naundorf and Sarah Moon will provide additional touchstones for the discussion.

Option 1: Thursday, June 10
6:30 pm

Option 2: Saturday, June 19
1:30 pm

Option 3: Wednesday, July 7
6:30 pm

Ayanna Dozier is an artist, lecturer, curator, and scholar. She recently completed her Ph.D. in art history and communication studies at McGill University. She is the author of the 33 ⅓ book on Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope. Currently a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney, she is also a lecturer in the department of communication and media studies at Fordham University.