Few things charge up a group of socializing friends more than the flashbulb pop and mechanical whir of a Polaroid camera. From the original Polaroids that ejected peel-back snapshots to the pocket-size I-Zone Instant Pocket Cameras that produce miniature photographic stickers, the way they make pictures instantly emerge from an amalgam of chemicals has been one of the 20th Century’s great parlor tricks.
Hoping some of that magic rubs off is Denise Miller-Clark, director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. For the last 13 years, Miller-Clark, who is responsible for mounting exhibitions and programs at the MCP, has been a trailblazer in profiling not only the work of fine-art photographers but that of commercial photographers as well, a democratic effort seldom seen in the rarefied environments of most museums.
Now, Miller-Clark brings a new card to the MCP’s maverick table. Recently, the museum unveiled its new 20-by-24-inch Polaroid camera, with a call to the city’s cadre of artmakers to come out and play.
The large-scale instant camera now making its home at a newly built studio at 1006 S. Michigan Ave., a few blocks south of the museum, is one of six such devices in the world. An impressive piece of equipment resembling the behemoth instruments of early photography, the Polaroid produces huge black-and-white or color contact prints in 70 seconds. The pictures boast extremely high resolution and virtually grainless surfaces.
The lush color images of which the camera is capable already are familiar to many because of the popularity of photographer William Wegman’s series of portraits of his brood of Weimaraners. In fact, Wegman’s project was specifically begun as a Polaroid Corp.-sponsored experiment in 1979.
That spirit of experimentation is something Miller-Clark anticipates will attract not only local photographic artists, but also corporate sponsors into taking the camera through its paces.
So what led Polaroid, which retains ownership of all the giant cameras, to decide that the Museum of Contemporary Photography should be custodian of this $75,000 piece of equipment?
It has much to do with Miller-Clark’s penchant for relationship-building.
Since her installation as MCP director in 1986, Miller-Clark has sought to accomplish the goal of many small-museum curators: to put her venue on the great-museums-of-America map. In 1988, the MCP was the second photography museum in the country to receive accreditation from the American Association of Museums.
“We have a large reputation in our field, but we’d love more attention in Chicago,” Miller-Clark said. “It’s tough for a midsize institution in the shadow of the Art Institute.”
A tireless networker, Miller-Clark became friendly with Barbara Hitchcock, director of The Polaroid Collection, the company’s Cambridge, Mass.-based artistic program that collects, exhibits and publishes photographic art. Hitchcock is in charge of all six of the company’s 20-by-24 cameras. From Hitchcock, Miller-Clark learned that five of the cameras are in use in professional and commercial studios in New, York, San Francisco and Europe, but the sixth is reserved for educational purposes and was then on loan to the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston.
Having performed stints at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Rochester Institute of Technology, located in upstate New York’s Kodak country, the educational camera is intended for use by young artmakers and those in continuing education.
“We choose institutions that have a lot of access to their communities,” Hitchcock said, “and can also provide the camera with a long-term commitment.”
In 1993, to demonstrate the MCP’s worthiness, Miller-Clark obtained the support of cutting-edge corporate art collector Refco Group Ltd. to commission New York-based fine-art photographer Dawoud Bey to extend his series of 20-by-24 Polaroid portraits of marginalized youth to the students of Providence St. Mel High School. The school is the favorite non-profit institution of Refco, a local investment securities trading company, and its chairman, Thomas Dittmer. Both Bey and the Polaroid came to Chicago for a week. The resulting portraits have been shown extensively nationwide, as Bey’s career has advanced.
Tapping into such commonality of interest seems to be Miller-Clark’s forte. Although such a skill once might have been considered too commercial for the fine-art environment, the ability to attract patrons to artistic programs is a duty that has become incumbent on all museum directors. On the camera’s second trip to Chicago, commonality will again prevail.
Although the camera is available to any artist, access comes with a price: Rental rates are $900 for a day, $450 for half a day, and include the services of a trained camera technician. Exposures are produced at a cost of $46 apiece. . Such fees could make the camera quite a revenue producer for the Columbia museum, which benefits from the profits.
“It is a revenue resource,” Miller-Clark said, noting that bringing the camera to the museum was part of a larger development strategy. “We’d like to create a studio similar to the one run (by Polaroid) in New York, but also tie it into the educational purposes of our institution.”
Up to 75 percent of the New York studio’s available time is booked by commercial and fine-art photographers. The overseers of the Chicago studio would love to match that kind of schedule. While waiting for daily use of the studio to build, however, Miller-Clark is spreading word of the 20-by-24 camera’s availability to corporate entities sponsoring special projects. She currently is negotiating with LaSalle Banks, a longtime supporter of photography, to commission a series of portraits of the winners of the 1999 Chicago Marathon, which is to be run Oct. 24.
“We thought it was a great idea (to bring the camera to Chicago) because Denise was going to reach out to the professional community,” Hitchcock says.
The camera also will have ample opportunity to function in its educational role, Miller-Clark says. It is a component of several Columbia College graduate-level photography courses that study color, technique and view-camera operation. Institutional lines will be crossed as well when the studio plays host to students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, who will work on experimental projects.
A class in portraiture will utilize the camera’s unique ability to allow the viewer to examine the different components of a face and, therefore, see that face in a more informed way. The class will be conducted by a newly installed Columbia College professor: Dawoud Bey.
Bey’s move from New York to Chicago was occasioned by his acceptance of a position at Columbia — an offer that resulted from his eight-week residency here arranged by Miller-Clark.
“I had such a productive and good time during those eight weeks, I thought it would be wonderful to work here,” Bey said. “(Columbia) has such a diversity of approaches to photography. There is no orthodoxy. It creates the kind of academic environment I wanted to be in.”
The artist said he has extended family in the city and that fact, plus his affiliation with Chicago’s Rhona Hoffman Gallery, where he has shown for six years, made moving here an easy decision.
“Of course, having the camera here represents a rare opportunity and will allow me to continue to do more sustained work,” Bey said.
Although the camera’s stay at Columbia was originally scheduled to end in January, Polaroid has agreed to extend its Chicago visit for an additional six months.
“If it is as successful as (in) New York, there would be no reason not to leave it in Chicago,” Hitchcock said.
