Big Shot - Schnabel’s Polaroids

Consider the Polaroid picture. When taken by a great artist, does it somehow become more than just a dull and grainy impression? Last year, this question prompted a shouting match on The Moment, with readers arguing about the artistic merit of a series of Andy Warhol Polaroids shown at Danziger Projects. Now the artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel shows us his own Polaroids in a new book by Prestel creatively titled “Julian Schnabel: Polaroids.” In addition to shots of his Montauk scarpe nike, N.Y. scarpe nike, studio scarpe nike, his family and a series of rephotographed late-19th-century images called “Crazy People,” Schnabel pointed his rare 1970s-era Polaroid camera at Lou Reed, Placido Domingo, Christopher Walken, the Beastie Boys and Mickey Rourke. The book comes out Sept. 1 and is already on sale via Amazon.com.