Members Only: A Collection of Found Polaroid Photos

In the late 1980s and early 1990s a liquor store in the Midwest had the idea of offering their customers the value added service of cashing their paychecks. They offered this convenient service by opening an auxiliary check-cashing business right inside of the liquor store. It was a big hit. In order to expedite the check-cashing process they implemented a membership database that consisted of a Polaroid instant photograph of each pre-approved customer as a form of identification. An index card with the name, address and contact information of each client was stapled to the photos.

Years later the liquor store changed owners and the check-cashing part of the business was closed. The photos ended up in some storage box that would ultimately be destined for the trash before they were saved from such a sad fate.

Most of these photos share the same backdrop of a white door with a square window. The sides of the door are marked with seemingly arbitrary electricians tape intended, you can imagine, to document the height of the person standing there as a way to further identify the subject. The irregular angles and distances of the photographs belies such an effort.

There are other photos that are taken with a different view giving us a partial view of the liquor store interior and in others you can see the check-cashing window itself. The title for this exhibition is a nod to the membership requirement of the check cashing program itself and to the Members Only jackets, the popular fashion trend of the time, that are prevalent throughout these photos.

There are over 500 of these photos and a small sample of them is just below: