NEW YORK, NY.- Andy Warhol was a relentless chronicler of life and its encounters. Carrying a Polaroid camera from the late 1950s until his death in 1987, he amassed a huge collection of instant pictures of friends, lovers, patrons, the famous, the obscure, the scenic, the fashionable, and himself. Created in collaboration with the Andy Warhol Foundation, this book features hundreds of these instant photos, many of them never seen before.
Portraits of celebrities such as Mick Jagger, Alfred Hitchcock, Jack Nicholson, Yves Saint Laurent, Pelé, Debbie Harry are included alongside images of Warhols entourage and high life, landscapes, and still lifes from Cabbage Patch dolls to the iconic soup cans. Often raw and impromptu, the Polaroids document Warhols era like Instagram captures our own, offering a unique record of the life, world, and vision behind the Pop Art maestro and modernist giant.
Richard B. Woodward is a New York based arts critic who contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. His journalism has appeared in numerous publications, from The Atlantic, Bookforum, Film Comment, The American Scholar, and The New Yorker to Vanity Fair, Interview, and Vogue. His essays on art and photography have been featured in more than 20 monographs and museum catalogs.
Reuel Golden graduated in politics from the University of Sussex, UK, and is the former editor of the British Journal of Photography. He has edited various titles for TASCHEN including The Rolling Stones, Her Majesty, Harry Benson: The Beatles, Age of Innocence: Football in the 1970s, and the New York and London editions of the Portrait of a City series.
A picture means I know where I was every minute. That's why I take pictures. It's a visual diary. - Andy Warhol
a fascinating insight of Andy Warhols intimate relationship with his celebrity friends
They include celebrity friends such as Dennis Hopper, Divine, Audrey Hepburn, Yves Saint Laurent and Nico, and have one thing in common they look fabulous. The Guardian, London
Andy Warhol. Polaroids reads like the Instagram feed that might have been
the book is itself a snapshot of culture and celebrity in the latter half of the 20th century. Architecturaldigest.com, New York
The connection Warhol drew in his art between photography and fame has become a bedrock belief of a generation that measures success in YouTube hits. Richard Woodward