Matthew Houston - Leanne - 5x4" Polaroid

Unique 5x4" Polaroid
Signed on the back.
The accompanying provenance paper is also signed and carries the studio stamp.
Very good condition
Not mounted - laid on museum board in archival mylar sleeve
In archival box
Dimensions of Polaroid - 14.5 x 10.5cm, Mount - 30 x 21cm, Box - 32 x 23.5cm

Shipped flat with rigid protection by registered mail.

The Polaroid material is the paper based first generation Polaroid known as 'peel-apart' Polaroid and available in 10x8", 5x4" and 3x4" format until the early 2000s when it was discontinued. Not to be confused with the 'integral' material now being manufactured by Polaroid Originals. This is a 'Type 55' print.

Matthew Houston has exhibited widely in Europe from Kettle's Yard in Cambridge, UK 1986 to most recently in Paris with Art-Icon May 2026.
This is one of a series of Polaroids and silver gelatine prints begun in the late 1990s and continued into the early 2000s. The small stage was on a sailing ship moored in London Docks.

Matthew Houston (1961) is a contemporary fine art photographer known for his evocative use of medium and large-format cameras and experimental analogue processes, particularly Polaroid photography. His work frequently explores the intersections of theatre, performance, and fine art, translating the fleeting nature of live performance into lasting physical artifacts.
Key aspects of his Work
Analogue & Polaroid Mastery: Houston leverages the immediate but unpredictable nature of Polaroid film. He often scales these intimate formats up as high-quality, large-scale silver gelatine and C-type exhibition prints.
Stages & Still Life: His portfolios include highly structured still life’s, like his Stages & Still Life series, which combine found objects, architectural forms, ceramic shapes, and textiles inside custom built miniature stages.
Theatrical Portraiture: He frequently collaborates with dancers, actors, and performance artists. He treats the camera frame as a small theatrical stage, capturing dramatic poses and textured, atmospheric lighting.
Aesthetics: By utilising instant film chemistry, his photographs feature distinct, organic borders, rich chemical tonal shifts, and a moody, painterly finish that highlights the tangible nature of traditional photography.
His limited edition prints and original Polaroid works are showcased by fine art institutions and collections globally.

"Matthew Houston studied printmaking at the Central School of Art, London, and later earned a First Class degree in photography from the London College of Printing. He began photographing models, actors, and dancers on a small stage he built while running a cabaret on a sailing ship. This stage was the setting for many of his large-format photographs and Polaroids in the late 1990s. Houston notes that the stage itself suggested the inclusion of a person and acted as a pedestal for his subjects. His photographs are known for their intimate often nostalgic qualities and are the result of an "open experiment" with his subjects. He focuses on finding common ground with the model and capturing what happens naturally. His photographs sometimes include subtle references to mythological figures and paintings. This is not meant to be a fixed theme, but a "gentle reference" that emerged from the stage-like setting of his early portraits."*
*From exhibition catalogue, London 2014

"The little stage I built was part of the studio and I began to make photographs of performers, friends, actors and models. Using Polaroid film gave the material a chance to be part of the picture as well. Polaroid is known for all kinds of quirks and accidents that are a reminder of process. As with other photographs I've made I feel it important that material and process are still included, still evident.”**
**From interview - Saatch Art

An excerpt from an exhibition review I discovered - BIP off, Liege - by Philippe Herbert
"Parcours atypique : ancien propriétaire d’un cabaret, il photographie depuis l’âge de 7 ans mais il a commencé cette série à 38 ans. Sur une scène improvisée, il photographie au Polaroïd grand format des femmes dénudées avec beaucoup de tendresse. Il renouvelle le genre du nu.""