Stefanie Schneider (born 1968) is a German photographer and visual artist living and working in Berlin and Los Angeles. She is best known for her use of expired Polaroid film, which she uses to create dreamy, faded images that recall film stills from times gone by. Her work explores themes of nostalgia, longing, and the transience of American

Schneider received her Master of Fine Arts in photography from Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany. Her artistic practice is deeply rooted in the American West, specifically in Twentynine Palms, California, where she has realized many of her projects. This location serves not only as a backdrop but also as a source of inspiration for her narrative and visually poetic work.​

What sets Schneider’s work apart is her unique approach to photography: she uses expired Polaroid film to create images with chemical distortions and color shifts. This technique results in photographs with a soft, faded aesthetic that evokes a sense of melancholy and timelessness. Her photographs are often presented in sequences, giving them a cinematic quality.​

In her project 29 Palms, CA (2014), Schneider combines photography with film. This work consists of six short films and a feature film, in which she examines the lives and dreams of people in a trailer park in the California desert. Through the use of still Polaroid images and voice-overs, she creates an introspective and meditative experience that blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction.​

Schneider's work has also found its way into popular culture. She has designed album covers for artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cyndi Lauper, and her photographs were used in the film Stay (2005), directed by Marc Forster. In this film, starring Ryan Gosling, her images are used to visualize the inner world of the characters.​
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Schneider has published several books, including Stranger Than Paradise (2006) and Wastelands (2006), which present her photographic work. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, and is part of collections such as those of the DZ Bank in Frankfurt and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.​