20x24 Studio

20×24 Studio featured in Forbes Magazine

John Reuter — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:24:59 +0000

Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan and fashion giant Vivienne Westwood have an unlikely common muse: a 33-year-old Polaroid instant camera. Make no mistake–this isn’t one of those handheld gadgets that became ubiquitous in the 1970s.
The so-called 20×24 Land Camera is a 235-pound behemoth, producing prints nearly 2 feet square. Edwin Land (1909-91), founder of Polaroid, built just seven of them, and only four are still in commercial use. Read more at Forbes.com. Article written by Francesca Levy.

Photo by Evan Kafka

Spook Magazine Features 20×24 Imagery in 2002

John Reuter — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 01:39:01 +0000

In 2002 the way ahead of its time on-line magazine Spook did an in depth article on the 20×24 studio. From Joyce Tenneson, Timothy Grenfield-Sanders, William Wegman to John Reuter, this image rich article provides an excellent snapshot of 20×24 photography at the beginning of the decade. Click here to download the article, written by Anthony Sapienza.

20×24 Images in exhibit: The Art of Polaroid

John Reuter — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:08:27 +0000

In the history of American photography, Edwin Land’s invention of Polaroid film in 1947 stands out as a profound influence on the work of many great photographers. As Polaroid technology evolved and was refined from the 50’s to the end of the 20th century (culminating in the astounding 20×24 inch format film camera — only 6 were built) — artists, many painters among them, were pushing the film to its limits.
Those were heady days. Finally, photography was beginning to be taken seriously by museums and collectors.
Now there’s a singular opportunity to see the work of many of these photographers together in one show.
Their images range from the look of a classical painting to the stunningly abstract; from pure documentary to the surreal.
The exhibit “The Art of Polaroid” at Gallery 4 in Tiverton 4 Corners looks back at this incredible era and some of the well-known artists it produced.
Artists include: Laura Blacklow, Paul Caponigro, Ellen Carey, Bobbi Carrey, Marie Cosindas, Alma Davenport, Elsa Dorfman, Olivia Parker, Rosamond Purcell, John Reuter, Jim Stone and Jane Tuckerman
The exhibit runs from July 31-Septeber 6, 2010. There’s an opening reception on July 31 from 4-7pm

Gallery 4 is located at 3848 Main Road in Tiverton 4 Corners, RI.
Telephone 401-816-0999. www.gallery4tiverton.com
Hours Mon-Thurs 10-5, Sun 12-5

The 20×24 Lab creates new reagent for PP400 film

John Reuter — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:31:34 +0000

20×24 Holdings set up a lab and warehouse at Belding Mill in Putnam CT less than one year ago. We transformed the space, building a darkroom to house the film spooler, moved one of Polaroid’s original pod machines into place and began testing formulas for reagents for our three films, Polacolor 3, Polacolor 7 and PP400. Today we perfected the final piece of the puzzle, the reagent for PP400, our black and white emulsion. We are now spooling cases of film from our large roll inventory and making pods for a new P7 reagent. From today’s test we will move to a full production run of reagent at out reactor housed at Webco Chemical in Dudley, MA and come back to Belding Mill and place this reagent into pods. It is a very exciting time for 20×24 Holdings, our perseverance and hard work are finally paying off. Special thanks to Paul Nangeroni, formerly of the Polaroid Black and White research lab for his consultation in formulating this new reagent.

Mega #4 at Belding Mill, photographed with T52 negative, PP400 positive and new reagent.

Chuck Close and AOL Celebrate New Partnership with 20×24 Images

John Reuter — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:53:18 +0000

Chuck Close in the 20x24 Studio, New York.

Chuck Close and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong at 20x24 Studio

In nearly 40 years of creating large-scale iconic images, American artist Chuck Close had never taken a commission, or allowed his work to be used commercially. That will change this year when Mr. Close starts shooting an ad campaign for AOL. It’s not strictly an ad campaign, but more a showcase of American artists, designers and inventors, part of a year-long “Project on Creativity,” which includes Mr. Close making images of AOL users that have made a difference, like inventor Dean Kamen, who designed the wheelchair he uses to get around, filmmaker Gus Van Sant, also an AOL user (who knew?), and actress Claire Danes. ”I really wanted to get involved because of their commitment to creativity on all fronts,” Mr. Close said at the unveiling of the project at AOL’s 25th anniversary party at the New Museum in New York City. Read more here.

Chuck Close 2010

Go behind the scenes at the 20×24 Studio.

Hear the latest news about the 20×24 Studio in John Reuter’s interview on Inside Analog Photo.

John Reuter — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:57:43 +0000

Lady Gaga, new P7 reagent, Chuck Close and AOL, hear all the latest news in John Reuter’s interview with Inside Analog Photo’s Scott Sheppard.

Lady Gaga and the 20×24 Camera at MIT Museum.

John Reuter — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:15:47 +0000

Pop sensation Lady Gaga, who recently signed a deal with Polaroid to be a Creative Director for some new product lines, visited the MIT Museum in Cambridge Massachusetts on June 3oth. Polaroid recently donated items from the corporate archive to MIT which includes the prototype 20×24 Camera from 1976. Lady Gaga, who reveres analog instant photography immediately fell in love with the 235 pound camera and jumped right in to create a series of over twenty self portraits. She chose our classic Polapan 400 20×24 film for this series. Among the props supplied by the MIT Museum were Dr. Land’s 50 year old desk chair and pairs of the original Polaroid 3D glasses from the 1950s.

Jennifer Trausch, Lady Gaga, and John Reuter

See the 20×24 Camera on BBC News

John Reuter — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:01:56 +0000

20×24 Studio Director of Photography Jennifer Trausch gives the BBC a guided tour of the 20×24 camera and process.

Jennifer Trausch on BBC

Our Reagent Pod and Film spooling in Belding Mill

John Reuter — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:05:04 +0000

It has been nearly a year since we took possession of the 20×24 Film production equipment and inventory from Polaroid. Over the summer of 2009 we found facilities to house the large reagent mixing reactor and the pod making machine and film spooler. This is our facility at Belding Mill, in Putnam, CT where we house some film inventory, test batch chemistry and mixing equipment and the Pod Machine itself, known as MEGA #4 when it was one of 22 pod machines in Polaroid’s Waltham factory. With great care it was moved from a Polaroid warehouse last summer and installed, rewired and hooked up to nitrogen and compressed air to make it operational once more. On this day pictured we ran over 600 Polacolor ER pods for 20×24 film.

Belding Mill 20x24 Polaroid Facility, Putnam, CT

Marc Souffrant commands the Pod Machine

Caroline Chiu: Polaroids as Chinese Ink Painting

John Reuter — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:28:30 +0000

Caroline Chiu: Polaroids as Chinese Ink Painting
An installation from A Chinese Wunderkammer
Snite Museum of Art
Milly and Fritz Kaeser Mestrovic Studio Gallery
March 14 to April 25, 2010

These photographs are taken from Hong Kong artist Caroline Chiu’s larger series entitled Dreaming: A Chinese Wunderkammer. Wunderkammer were 17th- and 18th-century European “wonder rooms” or “cabinets of curiosity”––some of the earliest known “museums”––which contained specimens reflecting the natural world, anthropology, archaeology, relics, and art. The late Qing emperor Qianlong, known for his passion for the arts, also pursued this type of collecting.
In Chiu’s case, she collects, by photography, objects representing the material culture of traditional China: bonsai, scholar’s rocks, flowers, artworks depicting the animal zodiac, and, here, goldfish. Her choice of subjects makes reference to historical Chinese culture; her graphic photographic images of goldfish suggest the brushstrokes of traditional Chinese ink painting and the sweeping abstract shapes of Chinese writing.
Because the images were taken with a rare 20 x 24 inch Polaroid camera—for which film is no longer manufactured––the exhibition is also an elegy to the era of Polaroid cameras and film. See the review in the South Bend Tribune.