Helmut has already written about the importance of 
Polaroids for his work.
But this exhibition proves that they were not always necessary, as often one can’t tell the difference between the Polaroid and the actual photograph. I used many of them as place cards for dinner parties. Some were sold to people who saw the value of them; some ended up in auctions. Many are still out there. So this is the reason I’ve exhibited them, for they have a life of their own. They always did, but they were meant as guides for him before the actual shoot took place.
He never used a motor drive. Chance was taken when an unexpected element presented itself. Otherwise, he went out on every job, prepared. But he loved the little Polaroid camera. It told him what he wanted to know, and it allowed him to correct whatever had to be corrected before he used whatever camera he was using.
On real film, his average was three rolls: one or two for him, the third in case something went wrong in the lab for one or two. He often brought home the day’s work of Polaroids to me, threw them down, and said, “What do you think?” As I have written, he was like Othello coming home with the spoils of war to his Desdemona.
I decided to enlarge the Polaroids, because, as the wolf said to Red Riding Hood, “all the better to see you with, my dear.”
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