Polaroid Images

Harold Joe Waldrum's

P O L A R O I D S

In the 1980’s, Waldrum was a highly successful Northern New Mexico Artist. During part of this decade, he split his time between New York City and Taos. On the last day of one of his Taos
visits, he wanted to somehow capture images of a church for a painting. He rushed into Taos and found a Polaroid SX70 camera. This camera served the purpose of capturing his last-minute images and initiated for Waldrum a life-long fascination with the Polaroid SX70 technology that resulted in thousands of images.
Waldrum showed a dedication to the artistic potential of the format. One of his most famous SX70 images, The Iglesia de Arroyo Hondo (1982), shows Our lady of Sorrows Mission Chapel in early evening light. It is a composition of simple planar shapes and forms and shows a clear link to his work in abstractionism. The small SX70 format, five inches by five inches, combined with Waldrum’s talent for compositions and color create images with a certain intimacy and a jewel-like quality.

In January 2010, The Albuquerque Museum opened "A Passionate Life,” an exhibition of selected images from nearly 8,000 SX-70 Polaroid photographs taken by Harold Joe Waldrum who called these works his "little jewels." The collection was donated to the Museum by the Waldrum Estate and Rio Bravo Fine Art Gallery in Truth or Consequences. The images below are a sampling selection from the remaining collection.

POLAROIDS-Flowers