UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2024 ****NOT***Nice Andy Warhol shot with Chinon Infrafocus 35F-MA

LATER ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2024

I looked over my post on Andy Warhol cameras. Around 50% of the images are attributed.

However, I don't think I can run down the ones that aren't.

With that in mind, I'm removing all the Andy Warhol camera posts.

It's been over a dozen years and many more bloggers and camera lovers have taken the time to identity the cameras Andy Warhol either used or posed with in photographs.

After the objection of photographer Dennis Whitehead for using one of his images in a fair-use case, initially and admittedly unattributed, I've decided I don't need to be the person using other people's photos without attribution. Again, even if the usage is fair and scholarly.

So this will be the only post about Andy Warhol cameras on THE SHUTTER GOES CLICK. Consider it a posterity post.

I did do the work to figure out the Andy Warhol cameras:

Canon ML

Canon Autoboy II/ Canon AF35M II

Chinon Infrafocus

Konica C-35

Minolta (some SLR as in Gary Gershoff's 1980 shot)

Minox ML (I think)

Olympus AF-1 Infinity

Olympus AFL

Olympus AFL-S

Polaroid Big Shot

Polaroid SX-70

There were more but I'm sure you'll find them out!

Best to you Warhol camera collectors.

***************

September 12, 2024

This is getting complex.

In August 2024, I received an email regarding a 12-year-old post, that I admit has propogated on a Search Optimization level. If you google Andy Warhol and Camera --  you may end up here, on this very blog post.

BUT that is not a good thing, anymore.

The email reads:

August 29, 2012

NICE ANDY WARHOL SHOT WITH CHINON INFRAFOCUS 35F-MA

How did you acquire any rights to this photograph?

Glad you liked the photo - how about paying for use and acknowledging credit?

Dennis Whitehead

It was in regard to the following image which I've altered but I hope you may recognize it as an Image of Andy Warhol holding a Chinon Infrafocus 35F-MA (see my own image of the camera below):

Then I wrote the following back to Dennis Whitehead. I was trying NOT to be a jerk about it but also I did feel I wanted to protect the work I had down to uncover which camera models Andy Warhol used over the years:

Hi Dennis:

Would you be so kind as to contact the involved estate or the Warhol Foundation, https://warholfoundation.org/ or the correct stock image company (I don't think its Getty Images) regarding your concerns, please? If they have a direct concern, I would be happy to accommodate them.

I will go back and try to figure out who took which photo. I just looked at these old posts and outside of Ron Gallela, I don't ID the photographer. And many I don't think I will be able to figure it out. But I'll fix that as best as I can.

May I add, I think it is important to contextualize my work and my inclusion of these admittedly copyrighted images in my personal blog.

When I started coming across online images of Andy Warhol holding cameras and began the work of actually identifying the models he either posed with or actually used (2010-2013), the level of knowledge around which devices he used was reductive or incorrect.

This side project (free, no-revenue, no ads) addressed a certain myth: that he only three or four cameras: the Minox with Rollei flash, the Polaroid Big Shot, and a Minolta autofocus SLR mentioned repeatedly in numerous memoirs and biographies (shouldn't forget the SX-70 either). The images available online and in photo memoir books about Andy Warhol (Ron Gallela's books for example) gave evidence of a wider diversity.

I believe, in fact, if I hadn't taken this on the misrepresentation of Warhol's camera usage would have been perpetuated to this day. The fact anyone knows Warhol used a Chinon is because I chased it down.

My research included delving into photo collection books, examining documentation of his residence upon the time of his death, and scanning the text of the aforementioned books for mentions of cameras.

I do believe my inclusion of these fall under scholarly and fair usage. And I'm happy you found the post itself and I hope you found the image and the camera ID useful.

However, if you still find the posting of these images galling, I suppose I would be comfortable taking down all the Warhol related posts on my blog.

Someone else in the future can do the work more correctly. Note, I do try. Here is a post of a number of cameras from various sources where I do ID the photographer: https://theshuttergoesclick.blogspot.com/2013/09/more-warhol-with-camera-shots-because.html

Any how, I hope this email finds you well. All the best, jj

But in the end, I felt like a jerk. Because I googled Dennis Whitehead, and he is the photographer of the image (see below in the red highligh box). Which is sad because this is an awful way to encounter someone.

Now, when I examined the original image that I posted, I noticed indeed a Corbis watermark. I've increased the contrast in the altered image above.

Corbis goes through Getty Images now. But I can't seem to find an image there to link to for your reference.

Dennis Whitehead licenses images through a platform called Photoshelter. You can find Whitehead's selection here. However, this particular Warhol image is not among them.

Clearly, Dennis Whitehead IS NOT HAPPY that I used the image. As a result, I've removed it. 

I'm not sure what will happen when I remove it. The only other place I've found it online is through Pinterest. I don't even know if I got it from Pininterest or vice versa. Perhaps the image will be lost to the ether.

In the end, I have no interest in violating people's intellectual property.

Dennis Whitehead, you have my apologies for using your image in a fair-use context. It annoyed you enough to write to me and that means I shouldn't haved used it at all.

----------------------------------

ORIGINAL POST

Warhol was well known for his use of the Minox and Polaroid Big Shot camera. I've always been fascinated by his wide use of autofocus point and shoots.

Here are two posts on this blog all concerning Andy Warhol and his diverse use of P&S cameras. They are:

• Andy Warhol's Cameras
• More Andy Warhol camera poses including the Konica C35-EF 2