Christopher Makos Polaroids at Christopher Henry Gallery April 22, 2010 - May 18, 2010 -- Opening Reception: April 22, 6 - 9pm

With its dynamic pop-open-from-flat design and "time zero" film the SX-70 was an advance on the 'year 2000' techno-utopian future that included lunar colonies, orbital vacations and flying cars. Needless to say that future never materialized, Polaroid has since gone the way of the AMC Gremlin and a third-party company was recently formed to create film for the fabled SX.

Now comes Christopher Henry with a show of work by that other Christopher, the Makos one. 55 specimens of SX sexiness await the peruser, and don't forget, these images are small so bring those reading glasses along. Interesting point: unlike many/most kinds of photography except perhaps daguerreotype, when you look at these images of famous and semi-famous figures keep in mind that the object you're looking at was had to literally be in the room with that celeb to be created. Kinda gives you goosebumps, doesn't it?

If I'm not mistaken, that's one aspect of a daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe that jacked its value up into the stratosphere.

The announcement is below -- check it out. Incidentally if you still have an SX-70 it might be fun to take photos of yourself at the opening of this exhibition and then hold a kind of recursive exhibition of your own.
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Christopher Henry Gallery is proud to present CHRISTOPHER MAKOS POLAROIDS, an exhibition of 55 original vintage SX-70 Polaroids. Much more than photographs, Makos' Polaroids are, in fact, precious artifacts - historic one-of-a-kind mementos from the 70s and early 80s, an era famously celebrated for its decadence but less often noted for its remarkable innocence. Decades before the age of flatbed scanners, digital cameras and desktop printers, Polaroid cameras had the unique ability to capture private, unreproducible moments in time - it was a seductive producer of images that developed magically before your eyes in the privacy of your own hands. Calvin Klein reminisced, “No one was afraid of being photographed back then because it was more likely a picture would end up in the back of someone's drawer than on Facebook, YouTube or the front page. So people were free, spontaneous, a little exhibitionistic. There was a sort of shared promise that things could remain a secret.

The exhibition is presented concurrent with the launch of a 180 Polaroid monograph CHRISTOPHER MAKOS POLAROIDS , published by Photology with text by Calvin Klein available for sale at the gallery.

Christopher Henry Gallery
127 Elizabeth Street
NY, NY 1001
T 212 244 6004
http://www.christopherhenrygallery.com/

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