Customer Reviews

Andy Warhol: The Factory Years, 1964-1967

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It is not a little ironic that the photographic record of an artist as prolific and as wrapped up in making and taking film and photographs as Andy Warhol was suffers from a dearth of great photos of the scene of Andy Warhol, The Factory and his Superstars: For real. I mean, I would love to own a book that is just chockablock full of all of the characters, primary, secondary, tertiary and beyond who populate the pages of the many books about Andy Warhol and the Warhol Experience. Unfortunately, there just doesn't seem to be any out there. Most of the books by and about the actors in the Warhol drama are text-based with a few, often the same few, grainy, shadowy, poorly framed black & whites. This book is an attempt by one to bring together more and better photos that fans such as I desire. It is a fair effort but only just. The book is over-size or 'folio' form which is GREAT, and mostly photographs. The text is composed of an opening statement of a couple of pages of over-sized type by the author followed by lots of photographs. The essays contain some valuable information that have the ring of truth to them, but they also seem spontaneous, off-the-cuff and free associative and as a result are not easy to follow. They are more blurted out than intoned, if you get me. The book is printed in the UK on non-glossy heavy stock. I'm unsure if this was done to save money or to impart a flat, gritty, industrial feel to the photos. It is a different look than anything else out there about Warhol and I can live with it; although, I catch myself wondering what this book would look like if done on really expensive, glossy paper with top notch production values. The author explains at one point that his photos were criticized by media critics for being odd and unconventional. He states that today this is recognized as a somewhat ground-breaking and very original and excellent representation of the scene. I think that they are a bit odd and unconventional. There are some great shots there though, and the author gets some portraits of Edie Sedgewick that are heart-breakingly prescient in retrospect. There are a couple great shots of Nico too and, of course, Andy. I was pleased to see some good ones of Taylor Mead and Paul Morissey which is a refreshing change; although, I must say that it would have been cool to see how the author would have represented Andy's mother, Billy Name, and Andrea Feldman. Oh, well, I suppose one must be happy with what one can get. I believe that if you are a huge Warhol admirer such as I you would be mad to not own this. If you are curious but indifferent to Warhol and the scene, right now as I speak you can buy this book right here on Amazon for a fraction of what it is worth and you should buy it NOW. If you don't care for Andy Warhol or care about him this book will certainly not change your mind so don't bother.

the book expanded redesigned and with the addition with a complete section of color phots has been republished by canongate books ,scotland