The interest in Polaroid is gaining momentum this spring, with the hotly anticipated new production of the beloved instant imaging film almost within reach. One of the most beautiful installations at AIPAD The Photography Show this March was the all-Polaroid presentation at Photology of Milan. The gallery-style installation included gorgeous, sexy images by Helmut Newton, Andy Warhol, Luigi Gherri, and Christopher Makos, among others.

Left to right: Chris Stein and Debby Harry 1979; Champagne and Donuts 1987; Self-Portrait in Bed with White Sunglasses 1975. Copyright Christopher Makos, courtesy Christopher Henry Gallery.

For those who have a keen interest in SX-70 Polaroids by masters of the form, tonight a show of Christopher Makos images opens at Christopher Henry Gallery. His visual diary of the times, in which he was the official photographer of Andy Warhol's Factory, epitomize what was so great about the medium - it was fun, it was instant, and you ended up with a picture that was a little object you could carry around and show your friends. Chris Henry says about the 50 vintage images now on view,

Much more than photographs, Makos' Polaroids are, in fact, precious artifacts - historic one-of-a-kind mementos from the 70s and early 80s, an era famously celebrated for its decadence but less often noted for its remarkable innocence. Decades before the age of flatbed scanners, digital cameras and desktop printers, Polaroid cameras had the unique ability to capture private, unreproducible moments in time - it was a seductive producer of images that developed magically before your eyes in the privacy of your own hands.

In the introduction to Makos's new book Calvin Klein sums it up beautifully. Here's an extract:

SX 70s existed before cell phones, texting and tweeting ... all the amazing advances that have enriched life but have also chipped away at our sense of privacy. SX 70s were passed around at parties and people just had fun with them. It was all about immediacy and instant gratification. No one was afraid of being photographed back then because it was more likely a picture would end up in the back of someone's drawer than on Facebook, You Tube or the front page. So people were free, spontaneous, a little exhibitionistic. They let their guard down, they were intimate, maybe even a little outrageous. Nobody worried too much about consequences. There was a sort of shared promise that things could remain a secret.

CHRISTOPHER MAKOS POLAROIDS at Christopher Henry Gallery,127 Elizabeth Street, New York, NY. Opening reception tonight, 6-9 pm. 212.244.6004. The exhibition is presented concurrent with the launch of CHRISTOPHER MAKOS POLAROIDS, published by Photology with text by Calvin Klein, which will be available at the gallery.

Christopher Makos was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, grew up in California, and moved to Paris to study architecture and work as an apprentice to Man Ray. Andy Warhol called Makos "the most modern photographer in America." His photographs have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums internationally, with works shown at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, IVAM museum (Valencia), and recently, the permanent collection of the Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid). His images have appeared in countless magazines and newspapers worldwide, including Architectural Digest, Interview, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine. He is the author of several books, including the recent Warhol/Makos In Context (powerHouse, 2007), and his recently published book in China by timezone 8, and in the United States by D.A.P, Andy in China. Makos lives in New York.

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