7 Polaroids and Inspiring Quotes by Andrei Tarkovsky

Discover this collection of Polaroids taken by the Russian filmmaker–each one is accompanied by a quote that invites you to step into his world…

Memory, dreams, and spirituality play a central role in the meditative work of Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. Born in Zavrazhye in 1932, he is considered by many to be one of the greats of film history. He won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury twice at Cannes with Solaris (1972) and The Sacrifice (1986); the Golden Lion in Venice for Ivan's Childhood (1962); and was posthumously awarded the Soviet Union's prestigious Lenin Prize.

Many of his sequences are iconic, such as the burning house in The Mirror (1975) or the protagonist’s long walk in Nostalghia (1983) as he tries to keep a candle alight. Tarkovsky was also concerned about the aesthetic and moral implications of the art itself, a topic he explored in his most-celebrated book, Sculpting in Time.

However, one of Tarkovsky’s lesser-known talents is his photography. It is said that he received a Polaroid from filmmaker friend Michelangelo Antonioni in 1977 and took photos up until his death caused by cancer in 1986 in Paris.

Tarkovsky’s collection includes 200 polaroids, of which 60–taken between 1979 and 1984–were published in 2004 by Thames & Hudson in the book, Instant Light: Tarkovsky Polaroids.

“We carry with us the dwelling place of our soul like the turtle carries its shell. A journey through all the countries of the world would be a mere symbolic journey. Whatever place one arrives at, it is still one’s soul that one is searching for.”

“Poetry is an awareness of the world, a particular way of relating to reality.”

“Above all, I feel that the sounds of this world are so beautiful in themselves that if only we could listen to them properly, cinema would have no need for music at all.”

“Some sort of pressure must exist; the artist exists because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn’t look for harmony but would simply live in it. Art is born out of an ill-designed world.”

“Time is a state: the flame in which there lives the salamander of the human soul.”

“The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as an example. Art aims to prepare a person for death, to plough and harrow his soul, rendering it capable of turning to good.”

“Becoming an artist does not merely mean learning something, acquiring professional techniques and methods. Indeed, as someone has said, in order to write well, you have to forget the grammar.”

English version by @eloiseedgington.

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