Selling debauched Polaroids in the bars of Amsterdam, 1980
To those born this side of the 1980s, the thought of purchasing photography on a night out may appear somewhat alien. After all, why on earth would you part with your hard-earned cash for something you can access to a near-infinite degree on a modern digital camera – the type our modern smartphones are plastered with? Perhaps you would if you were three sheets to the wind. Today’s featured photographers, Marc Miller and Bettie Ringma, benefited from both elevated blood alcohol levels and the technological vanguard of 1980 to capture some truly unique shots of Amsterdam’s nightlife.
In the late 1970s, if you wanted a photograph on a night out, you would generally need to lug a personal film camera around or visit a nearby photo booth. In this stifling inadequacy, Miller and Ringma saw opportunity. By selling photos of drunken punters to drunken punters in the various bars and nightclubs of Amsterdam, the cost of a Polaroid camera was soon levelled, allowing all surplus to afford accommodation and a few drinks – a no-brainer, it would seem.
Towards the end of 1979, the two New York-based photographers began selling Polaroids in bars on and around Rembrandtplein, Leidseplein, and on the Zeedijk in Amsterdam’s famed Red Light District. They were the first to offer this service to pub-goers, sparking a tradition that’s still alive today.
“Every night, we headed out for four or five hours seeking customers in Amsterdam’s entertainment districts. Although at first, we were not sure we would succeed, in retrospect, I can see our success was virtually assured,” Miller said of his portfolio created in partnership with Ringma, who sadly passed away in 2018.
“Dutch art history is full of portraits done in bars and taverns, but apparently, we were the first to update this tradition with instant photographs,” he continued. “Our Polaroid camera was a money machine fueled by alcohol; each photo sold for six guilders (approximately $3), and we usually took more than 50 pictures a night. We were soon a fixture of the city’s nightlife, with many regular customers eager to get new pictures whenever we happened to cross their path.”
So, how do they have this extensive portfolio if the Polaroids were sold to the customers? “For Bettie and me, the hardest part of selling the one-of-a-kind portraits was losing the many great pictures that nightly passed through our hands,” Miller continued. “Polaroid Corporation partially solved the problem when they gave us film to take second shots for an exhibition. Then the Dutch Ministry of Culture commissioned a videotape of our photography excursions. The exhibition ‘Amsterdam Privé’ showcased a year of Dutch nightlife, capturing in the photos and videotape the people, action and sounds.
“At the packed opening, ‘celebrities’ from the city’s working-class bars intermingled with Amsterdam’s cultural elite. Like much of the art we did in the 1970s and 1980s, our Polaroids now seem like a missing link connecting the Pop epoch of Andy Warhol with the current art world transformed by computers and the internet. Often our instant pictures were placed by patrons on the walls of their favourite bars. How different is this from the displays of digital pictures now posted instantly on websites like ‘Last Night’s Party’ and ‘Cobra Snake’?”
Below, you can see a selection of these wild and wonderful exposures of Amsterdam’s thriving nachtleven. This is just a snapshot – excuse the expression – of an expansive portfolio that Miller will exhibit in his upcoming book, Selling Polaroids in the Bars of Amsterdam, 1980. The book will arrive on June 15th, 2023, via the Dutch publisher Lecturis.
Alongside the photography, the book will feature maps and stories that trace Ringma and Miller’s Dutch odyssey. Visit Miller’s website for more information and photographs.
