Andy Warhol
People on the Street
No date
Gelatin Silver Print
The Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program Award, 2008
Andy Warhol’s visual diary is a timeless collection of images, which hint that “pointlessness is where the point is hidden”. He carried his camera at all times, documenting everything that surrounded him – people during their daily tasks, street signs, hotel bathrooms, parties and more. As many have said, he was consuming the life around him and the camera gave him the ability to be in the middle of the action, watching others blatantly, while at the same time providing a barrier between himself and the world. While New York City was his canvas, he shortly realized it is also a place where outcasts like him could become celebrities, art could be found in storefront displays and nothing was ever what it seemed. We learn through Warhol’s photographs, that living in New York, you can never stop being and acting like a visitor. In this black and white image, he presents the viewer with a picture of people walking, surrounded by buildings, most likely somewhere in the Upper East Side. We can spot a yellow cab on the street and the typical energy and chaos of the daily routine of a New Yorker. Anyone, who has lived in this city, will recognize this image and affiliate themselves with it. Warhol’s aspiration was to encourage viewers to look at the world – even familiar one – in new ways.
Wall Label written by Magdalena Zdunczyk, currently enrolled in Baruch’s MA program in Arts Administration.
Background sounds: Missing Sounds of New York: An Auditory Love Letter to New Yorkers