AUDIO TOUR - ABOUT THE SERIES

In October 1990 Joyce Tenneson set up a Polaroid 20x24 camera in the apartment of Mary Ellen Cornell, Counselor at the American Embassy in Copenhagen, and began work on her “Great Danes” series. Cornell had invited her for a week-long photography project that would capture a wide range of Danish citizens - from ballet dancers to politicians to farmers. One set was exhibited in Denmark and donated to the Frederiksborg Castle collection, and the other set returned to the United States.

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Initially, the commission had been to photograph famous, recognizable Danes, but Tenneson pushed to incorporate a broader swath of society. The subjects had already been finalized by the time Tenneson began photographing them; a Danish stylist helped with clothing selection, finding a balance between ‘Danishness’ and representing the personality and career of the sitter.

Through the process, Tenneson focused on capturing the ‘soul’ of the people through her photographs, saying, “I would react the way I would when I photograph any subject, to try and connect with them, and to ask them what was important in their life, and why they had chosen their professions, and what was the joys and sorrows of their life, you know, just in kind of casual conversation while they were getting their wardrobe on....” The final photographs reflect the soft and intimate portraits for which she was best known.

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Jan Hnizdo, former Polaroid Chief Operator who worked with the European Polaroid studios, brought the Polaroid 20x24 camera to Denmark from Prague and assisted with the logistical and technical side of the photoshoot. John Reuter, director of the Polaroid 20x24 Studio in New York for 25 years notes, “Joyce Tenneson experimented extensively with both films (color & black and white) and her vision was unique to the camera.”

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If you’ve ever had portraits taken, you know that the photographer usually takes a few before picking the cream of the crop. Similarly, Joyce took several photographs of each sitter before settling on which ones would be the ‘official’ portraits. Unlike digital cameras where you can delete the ones you don’t pick, Polaroids are instant cameras, so each photograph taken is developed right then and there, so each photograph is completely unique and one of a kind.