Warhol's Unseen Polaroids of Queer Icons

Andy Warhol often viewed the world through the lens of a camera. He was rarely without it at the Factory, jokingly refered his cameara as his “date,” and obsessively snapped photos of his celebrity friends and fellow artists. Now some of these images are on display at NeueHouse in Hollywood, for a 40-day show featuring 120 images, including 20 that have never been exhibited before.

Titled Andy Warhol: Photo Factory, the show — curated in collaboration with Fotografiska, Hedges Projects, and Jack Shainman Gallery — will trace the development of Warhol’s photography over the course of his career, beginning with photobooth film strips that served as source material for many of his iconic silkscreen portraits. Some of that material has previously been seen in previous installations and books like Contact Warhol: Photography Without End, but others are having their first public viewing. 

The Andy Warhol Foundation has made thousands of his photographs public over the last few years, amid cultural reevaluation of his use of the medium (he's always been revered for his silkscreens and film work, but only now seen as a photographer who almost predict modern life of social posts and phone camera obessions).

 After showing at NeueHouse Hollywood Andy Warhol: Photo Factory is scheduled to travel to New York’s Fotografiska in autumn 2021, Stockholm in 2022, and Tallinn, Estonia, in 2023. Below is a sneak peek at some of the queer icons whose polaroid photographs are included in the exhibition.