Sandy Brant 1972

This is a Polaroid of Sandy Brant, taken by Andy Warhol sometime in the late twentieth century. There is something quite beautiful in the limitations of this medium, the way that the colours are somewhat faded and skewed. The composition feels quite slapdash and casual, but this is exactly where the magic is. The slight blurriness and muted palette gives the portrait an intimate, dreamlike quality, like a memory half-forgotten. Look at the soft, diffused light, the slight imperfections, and the way the background seems to melt away. It’s a world away from the slick, commercial feel of some of his screen prints, yet it retains the same fascination with celebrity and surface. Warhol’s Polaroids are like little time capsules. Artists such as Elizabeth Peyton come to mind; they share this ability to capture a fleeting moment and invest it with a lasting emotional resonance. They remind us that art is just an ongoing conversation.