Tobias Titz: POLAROIDS 1998 – 2018

Tobias Titz, Alum Cheedy comments on the 1967 Referendum - photo by and copyright Tobias TitzMarking the 20th anniversary of his award winning Polaroid Project, The Fox Darkroom & Gallery presents a retrospective of Melbourne based photographer, Tobias Titz with POLAROIDS 1998 – 2018.

Tobias’ collaborative Polaroid project has both an aesthetic and an ethical dimension, each enabled by the special properties of Polaroid technology. Titz takes two photos: the first is a portrait; the second an identical shot, taken a moment later, after the subject has walked out of the frame.

This yields four images: a print and a negative of each shot. Titz hands the second, empty negative to his subject. What (s)he scribes into the wet, coalescing emulsion is as open as the image itself: a sketch, a piece of folk wisdom, a comment on the process.

In addition to sharing authorship in the final diptych, the subject also receives from Titz the original portrait print. The exhibition shows images from the beginning of the project in Germany to new influences in Australia.

Tobias Titz grew up and studied Photography in Germany and came to Australia in 2001. He has exhibited his work extensively in Australia and Germany, winning the International Polaroid Award in 2000, the Head on Portrait Prize in 2008, the Moran Contemporary Photography Prize in 2012 and the Art Handlers Award at the National Portrait Prize in 2017.

Tobias has worked with indigenous communities in the Pilbara, Arnhem Land and Central Australia for a number of years and photographic work from these interactions is held in the Museum of Australian Democracy, Canberra. His photographs are also included in numerous public and private collections in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. He lectures in Photography at Monash University.

Tobias Titz: POLAROIDS 1998 – 2018
The Fox Darkroom & Gallery, 8 Elizabeth Street, Kensington (Victoria)
Exhibition continues to 8 April 2018

For more information, visit: www.thefoxdarkroom.com.au for details.

Image: Tobias Titz, Alum Cheedy comments on the 1967 Referendum – photo by and copyright Tobias Titz