Lucas Samaras
American, 1936-2024
Photo-Transformation
INV-7388
Lucas Samaras
American, 1936-2024July 30, 1976
Photo-Transformation
Lucas Samaras American, 1936-2024 →internal dye diffusion transfer printphotographic process
Date
July 30, 1976
Medium
Manipulated internal dye diffusion print.
Dimensions
Image: 7.9 × 7.8 cm (3 1/8 × 3 1/8 in.); Paper: 10.7 × 8.8 cm (4 1/4 × 3 1/2 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Purchased with funds provided by The Polaroid Corporation
In 1973 the Polaroid company gave Lucas Samaras an SX-70 camera that produced a new kind of photograph— what came to be known simply as a Polaroid. It featured the so-called integral system, in which the photograph is developed and fixed without the intervention of the pho-tographer. While watching the image forming, Samaras determined that the film’s image-receiving layer remained highly malleable for several minutes after it is ejected from the camera. Taking advantage of this feature, he manipulated this layer in a variety of ways to transform his images, blurring photography, drawing, and painting. A marvel of engineering and chemistry, instant integral films can contain as many as 20 layers. Because of this structural complexity, there is often little a conservator can do to repair a work once it has been damaged.
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