Matthew Houston - Leanne - unique 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
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 and has the coating which was supplied with the film. The coating was designed to protect the fine silver image and put on immediately after the image appeared.

Matthew Houston (London 1961) best known for the Catalogue of Chaos series - an in depth exploration of the materials and processes of photography.

From a series of Polaroids begun in the late 1990s. The studio, a sailing ship from 1920 moored in London, England, also served as a venue for regular theatre and cabaret evenings.

"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."