Diego Uchitel: Polaroids
The Polaroid is like the photographer's version of the painter's sketch- it's a rough blueprint rather than a finished product. So there's something very intimate about Diego Uchitel's new book, Polaroids (Damiani), which shows how much art there is to a medium that wasn't even meant to be seen. (EditorsDepartures Magazine2013-01-01)Anyone who has ever posed for a Polaroid can recognize the snap of the collapsible camera and the buzz of the print. Having done the drill thousands of times for major names and up-and-comers, fashion photographer Diego Uchitel now has a book to prove it."Polaroids" features 240-plus never-before-seen shots that have been reproduced in their original untouched form - traces of tape, hints of wear and tear and typically muted hues included. These unrehearsed and painterly images helped Uchitel to define his style. (Rosemary FeitelbergWomen's Wear Daily2012-11-01)Uchitel has collected 25 years' worth of these photographic sketches in a new book, "Diego Uchitel: Polaroids" (Damiani, $50). The project, he explains, happened organically. "Today, layouts are done on computers. But back then I'd put one Polaroid on the wall next to another one. Four or five shoots later, they'd start spreading." And so it grew. The book's images, culled from years of portrait and fashion sittings, are presented bearing their age in elegant fashion, exhibiting remnants of tape, scratches and fingerprints, like relics from another time. (Bruce PaskThe New York Times Online2012-10-21)