Instant GRATIFICATION
If we are indebted to anyone for the constant refreshing, the constant peeping and discussion of celeb selfies, of fabulous lives, and intimate details that find their way into public and private discourse, it’s probably Andy Warhol. And it is probably he, the founder of Interview, whom we have to thank for perfecting Instagram before Instagram; his tremendous output of diaristic analog selfies and portraits, either meticulously constructed or caught on the fly with his trusty Polaroid camera, are mythic studies of glamour, sexuality, and the precarious gap between persona and the self. A new volume from Taschen, Andy Warhol: Polaroids 1958-1987, collects hundreds of these images, many of them previously unseen, showing us the way we were then, and the way we see ourselves now.
