Polaroid Exhibition Captures Beauty of Industrial America (PHOTOS)

Photography folklore tells you if you shake a polaroid print before it is finished developing, it will stay faded forever. In Susan Mikula's exhibition American Bond, it is ambiguous whether the liminal forms captured in her prints are fading because the polaroids or the subjects themselves were shaken up too early.

Mikula captures industrial sites along the Gulf, Southwestern coast and Eastern seaboard. Their inability to change fast enough is captured in her photographs taken with expired film; the sites' functionality and form fade into obscurity before our eyes. Mikula's images elicit a strangely emotional reaction to these machines; they do not appear threatening or powerful as machines are so often presented. Rather, they look lost and abandoned, hanging on the verge of obscurity.

According to her official statement: "For Mikula, the work, the loss, the lines, the light, the promise of these spaces is beautiful. Uncomplicatedly beautiful."

'American Bond, Selections from the Cycle, Recent Photographs' will be showing at George Lawson Gallery from October 19-November 19, 2011.
Opening Reception will be held October 22 from 5:30-7:30 pm

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Comments

[righty tighty]

12:59 PM on 10/20/2011

They are totally out of focus. Just kidding-- they are kind of neat.

[Roxs Bourgeois]

12:40 PM on 10/17/2011

Not everything should be classified as 'ART' just because someone had an idea. These pictures are horrid and if I would have taken them I would have thrown them away in the trash. I would be more impressed if they would have taken photographs of crumpled paper - that would have displayed depth, contrast, shape and form - and truly would have invoked a discussion about what you may or may not see within the dimensions. These photographs might as well been completely white - I see nothing of interest and don't care if I ever see them again.
Roxs

[sidge]

11:07 AM on 10/17/2011

Haunting. Painterly. Beautiful.

[Gronkie]

10:42 PM on 10/16/2011

Sorry, not buyin' it.

[WoodyCPM]

03:45 AM on 10/16/2011

As art they don't do much to delight or inspire me. I own an art piece made with a Polaroid from a now deceased artist friend. It's stunningly beautiful, painterly and evocative.

[Lady Feminist]

09:29 PM on 10/15/2011

Bolderdash! I had a polaroid and you can shake the photo all you want after it comes out of the camera. The photo will only be blurry if you shake the camera while taking the photo, or if you use really old film. Shaking the picture is something that was done to help it dry quicker.

Other than that, is this really art? Who says so? Anything that makes me think I need new glasses or a new computer can't be all that artistic. Just because someone says so doesn't make it so.

[JScott]

08:12 PM on 10/15/2011

Julius Schulman and Ansel Adams would NOT LIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JScott]

08:09 PM on 10/15/2011

Huh you mean badly developed photos are commanding super high prices and are counted as 'art'
wow you can barely discern the images. Is this an april fools joke?
Reminds me of the I Love Lucy epi when they were in Paris and they thought their feedbag burlap dresses were the latest fashion.............C'mon.

[bonelessfluff]

06:08 PM on 10/15/2011

I wish I didn't throw out my crappy pictures. I would be rich!

What a bunch of crap.

[americancolonyinhell]

03:32 PM on 10/15/2011

How these images merit special attention in the day and age of Flickr is beyond me.

[JScott]

08:13 PM on 10/15/2011

Even before there was such thing as Flickr.

[fauxpinky]

01:28 PM on 10/15/2011

Ms. Mikula captures the abandoned, out-of-time vibe that these old structures give off. There is a beautiful loneliness about these photos that stays in your memory, like a waking dream.

[JScott]

08:11 PM on 10/15/2011

Marketing talk for 'photos that didn't turn out'.

Kinda like homes for sale that are convenient to transportation aka 'they back up against a busy freeway'.

[pdweil]

01:23 PM on 10/15/2011

Beautiful, dreamlike, evocative, mesmerizing images exquisitely produced. The dreamlike quality is superimposed on to depictions of an aging industrial world -- for example buildings that are otherwise un-notable and would be un-noticed except for their transformation in Mikula's photography from mundane to deeply moving. Her technique applied to portraiture serves the same mysterious function that makes them unforgettable

[JScott]

08:12 PM on 10/15/2011

Sorry don't buy it AT ALL!!!

[studioh!]

12:02 PM on 10/15/2011

immaculate.degeneration.

[sjk1]

10:56 AM on 10/15/2011

blurry.