Diego Uchitel: Polaroids

Book Synopsis: Diego Uchitel has long revered the Polaroid for its dreamlike color and depth, and over the course of his 25-year career, he has continually sought to conjure these qualities in his fashion and celebrity photography. Uchitel used polaroid film from 1982 to 2006, until the digital camera became an unavoidable replacement. This volume is his loving homage to the medium that helped define his style—a selection of his favorite images, both commercial and personal, of models, fashion designers and celebrities such as Jessica Alba, Gabriel Byrne, Sofia Coppola, Diane von Furstenberg, Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler, Jack McCollough, Julianne Moore and Sting, as well as landscape photographs. Polaroids is awash with the tonal warmth and artifact feel of polaroid film, from its splendid design to the photographs themselves, which are reproduced in their original (and current) condition, with traces of tape and little signs of wear and tear around their edges. The book is bound in linen with a tip-on image.

Diego Uchitel grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where as a boy he often photographed his physician father’s patients. He moved to Los Angeles just after high school to pursue a career in film and enrolled at UCLA Film School, but soon realized that photography was closer to his heart. Uchitel’s photographs have been featured in Elle, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, German and Spanish Vogue, Vogue Hommes, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, D, Surface, Premiere, Citizen K and Rolling Stone. His advertising clients include Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Victoria’s Secret, Diane von Furstenberg, Anthropologie, Graff, Avon, Neiman Marcus, Olay, Warner Brothers, Nike, Levi’s and Microsoft.