The Andy Warhol Photography Archive: 130,000 Pictures of Everything and Everyone

'A picture means I know where I was every minute, that’s why I take pictures' - Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Negative [Grace Jones being painted by Keith Haring for Robert Mapplethorpe's Interview Magazine photo shoot], 1984, Black-and-white negatives. Cantor Arts Center collection, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2014.41.1461_34. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Grace Jones being painted by Keith Haring for Robert Mapplethorpe’s Interview Magazine photo shoot, 1984. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987) took a lot of photographs, making an obsessive’s visual diary of what and who we saw. Now we can see 130,000 of Warhol’s photos on 3,600 contact sheets and corresponding negatives at the Andy Warhol Photography Archive, a project run by Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center and Stanford Libraries. “He snapped photos at discos, dinner parties, flea markets, and wrestling matches,” say notes on the archive acquired from The Andy Warhol Foundation in 2014. “Friends, boyfriends, business associates, socialites, celebrities, passers by: all captured Warhol’s attention – at least for the moment he looked through the lens.”

There are pictures of starry names of their era, like Keith Haring, Michel Jackson, Victor Hugo, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bianca Jagger, Debbie Harry, Grace Jones, Jackie Kennedy (who appears in 300 Warhol paintings), Liza Minnelli, Nancy Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Truman Capote. “My idea of a good picture is one of a famous person doing something unfamous,” said Warhol. And if you film enough people for enough time, you can catch the real self behind the famous face. This is reality TV in stills.

 

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Negative [Jackie Kennedy Onassis at the party for Diana Vreeland's book "Allure" at ICP], 1980, Black-and-white negatives. Cantor Arts Center collection, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2014.41.417_5. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Jackie Kennedy Onassis at the party for Diana Vreeland’s book “Allure” at ICP, 1980. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

But as you sneer at what might be a simple vanity project, a life defined by Warhol’s relationship to other artists, you also see his photos of trash cans, buildings, hallways, people having sex in hallways, empty streets, dreary rooms, people having sex in dreary rooms, rubbish, and, well anything you can get in a click had you only been there. “Warhol took his camera with him and snapped images from the time he left his apartment, through midtown Manhattan, to work at his offices overlooking Union Square, to nights at uptown galas or downtown nightclubs,” says Amy DiPasquale, who led Cantor’s digitization project. “The images range from the mundane to the glamorous.”

 

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Negative [Bianca Jagger shaving in the living room], c. 1979, Black-and-white negatives. Cantor Arts Center collection, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2014.41.3771. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Bianca Jagger shaving in the living room, c. 1979. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Only about 17% of the photos Warhol took got printed. It’s still a huge number of images. If today’s iPhone snapping teenager lives as long as Warhol, 130,000 photos will be surpassed with minimal effort. But what might be banal and less engrossing than a Kardashian selfie, that apogee of hollow celebrity culture Warhol prefigured, has warmth and flavor. We get an isight into Warhol and hints at what coherent vision powered his artistic eye. The regret is in there being far more Andy Warhol photos than there are Andy Warhol’s paintings.

 

 

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Negative [Portrait photo shoot with Jane Fonda], 1982, Black-and-white negatives. Cantor Arts Center collection, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2014.41.608_6. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Portrait photo shoot with Jane Fonda, 1982. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Negative [Garbage cans], 1982, Black-and-white negatives. Cantor Arts Center collection, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2014.41.597_18. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Garbage cans, 1982.  © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Negative [Jean-Michel Basquiat portrait photo shoot], 1982, Black-and-white negatives. Cantor Arts Center collection, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2014.41.873_27. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat portrait photo shoot, 1982. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Negative [Montauk: Jon Gould posing on rocks], 1982, Black-and-white negatives. Cantor Arts Center collection, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2014.41.714_17. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Montauk: Jon Gould posing on rocks, 1982. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Negative [Andy Warhol Self-Portrait in Drag photo shoot], 1981, Black-and-white negatives. Cantor Arts Center collection, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2014.41.2516_9_WP. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol Self-Portrait in Drag photo shoot, 1981.  © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Negative [Diana Vreeland posing in a weight room], 1982, Black-and-white negatives. Cantor Arts Center collection, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2014.41.875_29. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Diana Vreeland posing in a weight room, 1982. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Negative [Houston: John Travolta at the Urban Cowboy premier party at Gilley's], 1980, Black-and-white negatives. Cantor Arts Center collection, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2014.41.2953_15. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Houston: John Travolta at the Urban Cowboy premier party at Gilley’s, 1980. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Negative [Mrs. Gilbert Kitty Miller under her Goya "Red Boy"], c. 1979, Black-and-white negatives. Cantor Arts Center collection, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2014.41.3604. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Mrs. Gilbert Kitty Miller under her Goya “Red Boy”, c. 1979.© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol posing in turtleneck and sunglasses, 1986.  © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

 

Would you like to support Flashbak?

Please consider making a donation to our site. We don't want to rely on ads to bring you the best of visual culture. You can also support us by signing up to our Mailing List. And you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For great art and culture delivered to your door, visit our shop.