The Photographer’s Gallery presents Instant Stories: Wim Wenders’ Polaroids

THE Photographer’s Gallery in London will be offering a rare view of personal and never before seen Polaroids of German Oscar-nominated film–maker Wim Wenders in the exhibition Instant Stories: Wim Wenders’ Polaroids. This exhibition provides an intimate insight into his processes of film making and aesthetic inspirations for his film scenes and in everyday life.This is the first time that Wim will have shown a selection of thousands of Polaroids taken, and it is obvious that his interest into photographing with polaroids branches from his take on the quaint format while he was learning film–making in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

 
Wim Wenders’ Polaroids

Polaroids can be seen as a visual diary or a notebook, recording things that words written down can’t express.Wenders used Polaroids as a way of testing out frames and ideas. Describing a polaroid as a single object of its own,Wenders specifies that they are not copies, not prints and not repeatable, poetically expressing that Polaroids transfer a piece of the past into the present, transporting us back to a time of nostalgia.

Wim Wenders’ Polaroids

The exhibition of Instant Stories emerges you into over 200 excitably retro Polaroids by Wim Wenders, with Portraits of cast and crew, friends and family, behind the scenes, street-photography, still-life and landscapes. Wim’s Polaroids reflect a distinctive vision, from his first trip to New York and his fascination with American TV, views from rooftops, shop-fronts, roads and cars, recording them all with a snapshot. The exhibition will also feature moving images from his films.

by Abigail Jane Winterford

The exhibition opens on  October 20 until February 11, 2018

The Photographers Gallery is located at 16 – 18 Ramillies Street, London, W1F 7LW.

Images courtesy of Wim Wenders and The Photographers Gallery