Robby Müller: Polaroïds

Marian Goodman Gallery is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of Robby Müller in Paris. Known as one of the most influential directors of photography, Robby Müller (1940-2018) was also a prolific photographer. The show at the gallery’s 66 rue du Temple space includes a selection of photographs chosen from his exceptional archive of over 2,000 Polaroids. His pictures were often taken in his time off while working on films, many directed by Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch between the early 1970s and the late 1990s. These intimate, personal snapshots, captured in moments of solitude, contextualize the world through his eyes. As a cinematographer, Müller chose to work with film directors who had something to say about life; his Polaroids bear witness to his humble and poetic outlook on life.

The original Polaroids and the prints on display show an amalgamation of cinematic as interior views, still lifes, landscapes as well as cityscapes mainly shot in different cities in the United States. From a neon signage on a motel in Santa Fe, street lamps in Los Angeles, a play of shadows on a wall in Memphis to the illuminated Eiffel Tower in Paris, these eclectic images interpret varying degrees of luminosity. In an essay written about his Polaroids, Bianca Stigter notes: “Robby Müller is often compared to Vermeer, because they are both Dutch and because they both handle light in a reverent way. They do not use light to convey a scene; they use a scene to convey the light. Light is not what makes things visible; things are what makes light visible. The Polaroids, especially as seen in series, are preoccupied with light, how it shines through a curtain or a shirt, how daylight gives over to artificial light, how light can have color and give color, how different light sources compete and fade.”