When the name Andy Warhol is mentioned most people think of Campbell’s soup, bright images of Marilyn Monroe and Pop Art. A current exhibition of his photographs at the Photographer’s Gallery is a complete contrast. It is made up of black and white images are not made up of celebrity but the everyday.
Whilst a portrait of Jerry Hall is included in the show, most images are of smaller details of life. There are photographs of rubbish bags by a roadside, shop windows and signs. Many of these images are printed multiple times and then sewn together, much like his famous serial ‘pop’ images of the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley and Chairman Mao. These images however, were taken towards the end of the artist’s life, so are unlikely to be a precursor to the images that most are familiar with.
These images are insightful as they are not as loud as the artist’s coloured silk-screen prints. The viewer is able to get a better sense of the man behind the art in these recordings of the artist’s everyday life.
Andy Warhol: Photographs 1976-9187 are on display at Photographer’s Gallery until 30 March