Ina Ginsburg 1982

This is Andy Warhol’s Polaroid of Ina Ginsburg, and I love thinking about how he made these. With Polaroids, you only get one shot, and that’s really exciting. It’s about the moment. I find myself drawn to the way Warhol captures the subtle gradations of Ginsburg's skin tones, those freckles and shadows. There’s a casualness to the whole thing, like we’re just hanging out with Ina. You can see the immediacy in the image; it's like he's capturing the essence of the sitter in that instant. The way Warhol simplifies the color palette makes me think of Alex Katz, how he reduces detail to focus on the essentials. The Polaroid is a fleeting moment made permanent, capturing a certain attitude, a certain way of seeing. And that's what art is all about, isn’t it? Different ways of seeing and experiencing the world.