Despite his fame as a painter, filmmaker and colourist, Andy Warhol’s (1928 – 1987, USA) use of photographic imagery permeates his practice. However, it was only later in his life, when acquainted with the compact cameras of the 1970s that he focused on photography in its own right.

Using 35mm black and white film, Warhol carried a camera with him most of the time – taking up to 36 frames a day. Capturing everyday details, people, street scenes, celebrity parties, interiors, cityscapes and signage his subjects all reflect the artist’s characteristic indifference to hierarchy.

Warhol’s interest in serial and repeated imagery, seen throughout his work, is brought to play through his striking series of ‘stitched’ photographs, creating over 500 between 1982 and his death in 1987. These feature identical images arranged in grid form, stitched together with a sewing machine.

Tendencies and patterns emerge across both the singular and stitched works that reveal photography to be at the centre of Warhol’s thinking, looking and making. 

The Photographers’ Gallery would like to thank the following lenders for their generous co-operation: FAIF Collection/ gallery focus21, Bischofberger Collection, Collection Eric & Suzanne Syz and Timothy Taylor Gallery.