From the 1980s until the medium’s discontinuation, Franco Fontana embraced the captivating world of Polaroid photography. “A magic, a mirage that appears before your very eyes in just a few minutes. That moment captured with the joy and satisfaction of seeing it immediately—the joy of childhood,” he recalls. The Polaroid’s immediacy suited Fontana’s dynamic temperament, and he soon adopted it as a notebook, a research tool and a visual diary for recording events, encounters and spontaneous impressions.

Many of these Polaroids were later transformed through further experimentation: their emulsions transferred onto cardboard to form the basis of collages. These playful, intimate and domestic works constitute a fundamental—yet still lesser-known—chapter of Fontana’s artistic production.