Tuesday 13 July 2010

Fernanda Montoro
























All images © Fernanda Montoro

Fans of the Polaroid will hopefully revel in these pictures that have been sent in by Fernanda Montoro. I, for one, was bowled over by the dreamy and poetic nature of her images. Some may indeed argue that the Polaroid simply offers yet another form of processed nostalgia but there is no getting away from its singular ability to convey the intimacy and melancholy beauty of things; in other words, a "thereness".

Fernanda Montoro was born in Uruguay, in 1974. In 2002 after 10 years working in the scientific field, Fernanda moved to London where she studied film-making and set up Satori films. During the process of making short documentaries Fernanda discovered her passion for photography. Today she lives and works as a freelance photographer between London and Montevideo, using mainly vintage Polaroid cameras. Her limited edition archival giclée prints and original Polaroid work has been exhibited in galleries around the world and published in numerous magazines and books.

Talking about the photographs shown here, Montoro says:

"Two years ago I made the decision to shoot, almost exclusively, with a Polaroid sx70camera. I had fallen madly in love with the way Polaroid magically captures light, with the distinctive quality that a polaroid photo has. Also, I am interested in telling stories and expressing myself through visuals and Polaroid and its dreamy, blurred quality is the perfect means for me to do that. I called this selection of photos Time Zero.Time Zero is one type of film that Polaroid produced until 2006. It's become harder and harder to find, but that only makes it even more special. For me, the texture, saturation of pictures taken with Time Zero film equals none."