Sailors, Key West

Marie Cosindas was an American photographer known for her pioneering use of Polaroid color film in fine art practice during the 1960s and 1970s. Working at a time when color photography was largely dismissed by the art establishment, she employed the instant film process to create intimate still lifes, portraits, and domestic interiors suffused with saturated jewel tones and a luminous, painterly quality. Her restraint in composition and her treatment of ordinary domestic objects elevated the snapshot aesthetic to museum-quality work. Cosindas helped legitimize color photography and the Polaroid medium as serious artistic tools during the postwar period.

Boston, MA, USA