Andy Warhol was a transcendental multi-disciplined artist, but one of the biggest influences on his pop art was the functional expressiveness of photo booths.
How Did One Of History’s Greatest Artists Use Photo Booths?
The popularity of photo booths, whether they are used in corporate conferences, weddings or other big social gatherings, is that they allow for both uniformity and self-expression in equal measure.
Whilst they can and often are associated with identification photographs, the modern use of photo booths for many people is how people can showcase themselves and their personality within the confines of the high quality, even light conditions of the booth, and often get physical pictures to take away as a result.
This approach to booth photos was always part of the appeal, with the entire subculture of purikura emerging as a result.
However, long before this, one of the greatest and most captivating artists of the 20th century was deeply enamoured with the photo booth, to the point that it fundamentally shaped his artistic direction.
As an innovative part of the pop art movement, the idea of replication and creating art through mechanical reproduction processes were a big part of Mr Warhol’s work, in part due to his history of creating art for marketing and a blurring of art, commerce and everyday life.
The photo booth was the inspiration for one of the biggest changes in his career from painting to photography, and whilst he did not come up with the idea of everyone having 15 minutes of fame, the instant photography first achieved through these booths seemed to inspire his view of art.
The most notable example of this was Self-Portrait, a strip of photographs taken at a booth in Times Square, New York and submitted to the magazine Harper’s Bazaar as an example of his work.
The idea of repetition, first achieved through paint dots, then tracing, silkscreen and finally photography, came from the photo booth, and he even had a 1989 exhibition and book on the subject, featuring not only self-portraits but celebrities and other artists in his inner circle.
Whilst photo booths existed long before Andy Warhol and have continued to thrive long after his untimely death in 1987, he was one of the most influential figures in our relationship with them.