Vol.2
New York Chronicle 1970-80s:

Portraits Born Out of Downtown 

Photographer Christopher Makos, who studied under Man Ray, was born in 1948 in Lowell, Massachusetts, and is based in New York.

He became one of the most trusted photographers of Andy Warhol, known for their close professional and personal relationship.

He frequently accompanied Warhol on worldwide trips — including to China — and continuously photographed his private moments.

In my capacity handling Warhol’s work, I have always been deeply interested in portraits of Warhol.

The New York publisher Ronald Feldman handled Warhol’s later works (mainly after 1981), and I learned that when the company dealt with Warhol’s photographic works, the original idea was proposed by Makos.

In 1995, I visited Makos’s studio in New York and was shown many of his photographs of Warhol. Inspired by Makos’s creativity, I decided to attempt a project together with him.

Specifically, I commissioned portraits of seven artists — Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel, David Salle, Kenny Scharf, and Francesco Clemente — and, as a new approach, chose to print on linen using the photogravure technique instead of standard silver-gelatin prints. This is one of the techniques frequently used by Robert Mapplethorpe; whereas the silver-gelatin print yields a sharp, high-contrast appearance, the photo-etching (photogravure) method grants the photograph softness and fluidity. The printing process was carried out by Sue Evans, who also served as Mapplethorpe’s printer.

The work was exhibited at a gallery I previously operated; Makos liked my idea very much and produced two formats: a single print edition and a version composed of four photographs sewn together with thread.

As a personal memory of Makos: I commissioned him to photograph my own portrait. In his series called “Stand Up Portrait,” the human body is divided into four parts — head / upper torso / lower torso / legs — and each part is photographed separately and then joined together. At the time I was struck by how innovative his approach to portraiture was, and to this day I remain deeply impressed.