Instant Stories
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Author | Wim Wenders |
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Language | English |
Genre | Photography book |
Published | 2017 |
Publisher | Thames & Hudson |
Pages | 320 |
Instant Stories is a photography book by German filmmaker and photographer Wim Wenders, published in 2017. The book is a collection of more than 400 polaroid photographs taken from 1968 to 2017, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s. The book and the related exhibition where received with high critical acclaim.[1][2][3][4]
Content
The book documents a large quantity of polaroid's taken by Wenders under the most diverse circumstances, presenting places, with street and landscape photographs, and events during his film career, specially in the 1970s, including his first travels to the United States, portraits of friends and actors, a travel to Japan to meet Yasujiro Ozu, and film theaters in Germany. Wenders himself wrote the explanatory texts, short stories and haikus of the book. Wenders explained that his purpose back then, more than creating art, was to document life: "It was just part of my life. I would photograph things to do with movies I was making, or when I travelled. It was useful and fun - which I think is what Polaroids were for most people."[5]
Exhibition
The book was accompanied by the exhibition "Instant Stories/Wim Wenders' Polaroids", which took place at The Photographers' Gallery, in London, from 20 October 2017 to 11 February 2018.[6][7]
Reception
The British Journal of Photography praised the book and described it as a "love letter to the Polaroid".[8] Charlotte Irwin, at Financial Times, also praised the book, considering that "Whether it's an intimate glimpse of actor Dennis Hopper or an empty Western landscape, the pictures act as an authentic, unedited documentation of Wenders's life and work, and show the beauty of photography before the filtered age."[9]
References
- ^ Instant Stories, Wim Wenders Official Website
- ^ Instant Stories, Thames & Hudson
- ^ Wim Wenders' Instant Stories is a love letter to the Polaroid, British Journal of Photography, 2 November 2017
- ^ Snapshot: ‘Instant Stories’ by Wim Wenders, Financial Times, 20 October 2017
- ^ How Wim Wenders put the snap back into Polaroids, BBC News, 22 October 2017
- ^ Instant Stories/Wim Wenders’ Polaroids, Artpill
- ^ Gentlemen Take Polaroids: Wim Wenders' Instant Stories, The Quietus, 21 January 2018
- ^ Wim Wenders' Instant Stories is a love letter to the Polaroid, British Journal of Photography, 2 November 2017
- ^ Snapshot: ‘Instant Stories’ by Wim Wenders, Financial Times, 20 October 2017
- v
- t
- e
- Summer in the City (1970)
- The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty (1972)
- The Scarlet Letter (1973)
- Alice in the Cities (1974)
- The Wrong Move (1975)
- Kings of the Road (1976)
- The American Friend (1977)
- Lightning Over Water (1980)
- Hammett (1982)
- The State of Things (1982)
- Paris, Texas (1984)
- Wings of Desire (1987)
- Until the End of the World (1991)
- Faraway, So Close! (1993)
- Lisbon Story (1994)
- The End of Violence (1997)
- The Million Dollar Hotel (2000)
- Land of Plenty (2004)
- Don't Come Knocking (2005)
- Palermo Shooting (2008)
- Every Thing Will Be Fine (2015)
- The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez (2016)
- Submergence (2017)
- Perfect Days (2023)
- Room 666 (1982)
- Tokyo-Ga (1985)
- Notebook on Cities and Clothes (1989)
- A Trick of Light (1995)
- Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
- The Soul of a Man (2003)
- Pina (2011)
- The Salt of the Earth (2014)
- Pope Francis: A Man of His Word (2018)
- Anselm (2023)
- "Twelve Miles to Trona" in Ten Minutes Older (2002)
- "Person to Person" in 8 (2008)
- Pictures from the Surface of the Earth (2001)
- Instant Stories (2017)
- Road Movie trilogy (1974–1976)
- Beyond the Clouds (1995)
- City of Angels (1998)