Steidlville

Original signed polaroid in a display case, with a signed book, all housed in a handsome slipcase.

Limited edition of 100 copies (+5 Aps)

One of the seminal artists of contemporary photography, Philip-Lorca diCorcia produces work that exists in a wide spectrum of fictionalized documentary. Yet a thematic and conceptual unity, most often realized in serial form — and particularly suited to monograph format – marks each series in his oeuvre.
With Thousand, diCorcia inverts his own tendency: the monograph is now the work itself. The sheer volume of material, which spans over 20 years of personal and artistic creation, challenges the notion that editorial power can establish context and narrative. Any attempt to logically order the images proved futile. In this case, rather than conscious design creating rigid form, a computer-generated randomization determined order. DiCorcia assigned each Polaroid a value, which served as input for the computer-generated sequence; the randomized sequence provided the layout.
Flipping through the pages of Thousand does not give a retrospective or summation of the artist’s life — rather, it displays an exercise in chance and the construction of memory. An unwashed pan soaking in the sink precedes an unknown woman resembling an odalisque; the familiar linoleum aisles of a generic supermarket give way to a verdant swatch of lawn. These images are at once alien and deeply familiar. And just as one moment in our lives may recall another, these photos echo among one another — within the book, within the canon of diCorcia’s work, and within our personal experience. The Polaroid proves to be the perfect souvenir — unique and subject to reinterpretation — like memory itself.

Download edition brochure showing available original polaroids 1-100.