'Every real moment' in photographic work by Andy Warhol

122 Pages·2012·8.44 MB·English

‘Every real moment’ in photographic
work by Andy Warhol

Sara Rundgren Yazdani

Master Thesis in Media Studies
Institution of Media and Communication
University of Oslo
Spring 2012
© Sara Rundgren Yazdani
2012
’Every Real Moment’ in Photographic Work by Andy Warhol
Sara Rundgren Yazdani
http://www.duo.uio.no/
Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo

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What I liked was chunks of time all together, every real moment.

Andy Warhol (and Hackett 1980: 138)

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Abstract

Andy Warhol died in 1987 leaving behind a complex and profound body of photographs.
Despite that his name has been associated with silkscreen canvas visages of Marilyn Monroe,
Elvis Presley and Chairman Mao, Warhol was also a photographer and filmmaker, in addition
to public perception of him as simply a fine artist. For Warhol obsessively recorded the world
around him for almost three decades with many diverse recording apparatuses. From 1962 his
Polaroid camera, film recorder, photo devices, and tape-recorders were always present in his
artistic life (Petersen 2011). This thesis therefore seeks to enter his world of photographs to
analyze this less discussed body of works. Meanwhile it also aims to debate Warhol himself
as a post-war artist, and his relationship to the recording devices. As mediations of gender
and sexuality is explicitly expressed in his photographs, the thesis will from a queer
theoretical and Foucaldian perspective, aim to examine the politics of the way in which the
photograph allowed Warhol to capture homosexual bodies and same-sex desire. Analyzing
these images, along many other photographs from 1890 until our contemporary era, the thesis
enters the discourses of gender, sexuality and power, as well as wide historical and artistic
discipline of the visualization of homosexuality. Entering these discourses the thesis will
render new meanings of the means of the photographic image par excellence, by critically
analyzing its relationship to the real as well as its power to mediate discourse and language.
The argument that I will aim to develop is that Warhol practiced his art and used the
photograph not only to capture ‘every real moment’, but also as oppression against the
naming of the homosexual subject as the other.

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Acknowledgments

My warmest thanks are dedicated to my supervisor Gary Needham not only for introducing
me into a queer and feminist approach to both Andy Warhol and visual culture, but also for
inspiring, challenging and motivating me to think as a critical queer and feminist writer. This
thesis would never have happened without his encouragements, outstanding lectures and
fruitful discussions. I also wish to thank my supervisor Liv Hausken for forcing me to trust
myself and providing me with a rich insight into the philosophy of the photograph, the
portrait genre, and media aesthetics in general.

My thanks go also to many other people who have supported me and had strong impacts on
the way I now look at photography, queer theory and culture in general - Joanne Hollows,
Vicky Clark, my friends and colleagues at FETT - among many many others. I must also
thank Rod Bianco gallery and Sigmund Bakken for advice and inspiring conversations about
Warhol.

Finally, my warmest thank goes to Markus whose support and love have been better than any

photography.

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Contents

Abstract v
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1 Theorizing the Photograph 9
2 Gender, Sexuality and Photography 25
3 Warhol, Recording and Sexuality 57
4 Reinventing the Portrait 71
5 Warhol, Polaroid and Sex 83
Conclusion 101
Bibliography 107
Filmography 112

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