Tobias Titz: Polaroids 1998–2018

The Fox Darkroom & Gallery is back with another exhibition celebrating one of Melbourne’s most acclaimed photographers, Tobias Titz, and the 20th anniversary of his award-winning Polaroid Project. Titz began the project in 1998 and has worked extensively with subjects from Germany and with Indigenous communities in the Pilbara, Arnhem Land and Central Australia.

Titz uses the unique qualities of the polaroid format to enhance his images with multiple dimensions. He takes two photos: first a portrait and the second an identical shot once his subject has walked out of frame. This process creates four images, a print and negative of each. The second, empty negative is then handed to his subject. The resulting sketches, scribbles, messages and comments now stand where the subject once stood, a snapshot of the mind paired with a snapshot of the body. In this way, Titz’s project is a collaborative one, sharing authorship with each of his subjects.

The images themselves are remarkable, the subjects presented in stark detail, every line and crevice, scar and wrinkle clear to see, as clear as the natural framing and border of the polaroid, distressed, decaying and frozen in time. There is a texture to every image, a tangibility not just evident in the black-and-white faces but in the form of the images themselves. It is especially prevalent in Titz’s work with Indigenous communities and how the history of the land is reflected in their faces, a history of place and people. Many of these images are paired with messages reflecting the history of Indigenous people in Australia, from the 1967 referendum allowing Indigenous people the right to vote to protests against uranium mining in Western Australia. In this way, Titz’s work takes on a political relevance, highlighting the people behind the issues, giving them a face as well as a voice. 

The exhibition is on now at The Fox Darkroom & Gallery until this weekend, a must for fans of photography and a fascinating insight into a unique form and method. Tickets are also available for the Polaroid 55 Workshop where guests will take part in a hands-on demonstration with Tobias Titz, producing instant positive/negative prints and uncovering the history and process behind his work.

Polaroids 1998–2018
The Fox Darkroom & Gallery, 8 Elizabeth Street, via laneway, Kensington
Till Sunday, 8 April 2018
thefoxdarkroom.com.au/polaroids-1998-2018-tobias-titz/