Jackie Curtis 1974

Andy Warhol snapped this picture of Jackie Curtis, we don't know exactly when, using a Polaroid camera. The magic of Polaroids lies in their immediacy, a kind of snapshot of a moment, a feeling. Warhol’s work embraces this process; a direct, almost unedited capture. Look at Jackie’s face, the stark white makeup, the exaggerated eyebrows. There’s a deliberate theatricality, a performance. The lighting is flat, almost clinical, but this just throws the focus back onto Jackie's self-creation. See the single red brooch pinned to the plain white shirt? It's a small, defiant splash of color against the pale canvas of the face and shirt, like a punctuation mark emphasizing the whole image. Warhol was always drawn to those who lived on the edge, who weren’t afraid to perform their identities. Like Nan Goldin, Warhol saw beauty and truth in the everyday, in the raw and unfiltered moments of life. His art reminds us that identity is fluid, performative, and always a work in progress.