MinerAlert
MinerAlert
Instant Exposure: A Habit of Documenting pairs Polaroids taken by Andy Warhol between 1975 and 1986 with Polaroids taken by El Paso-based artists Beatrice Macias-Caballero and Julio Barrera. Warhol used Polaroids like sketches, taking hundreds of photographs of his subjects and choosing a select few to enlarge and produce silkscreened paintings. Drawn to the immediate and tangible results as well as the uniform size, ease of use, and accessibility of the Polaroid camera, Warhol was able to archive friends, artists, celebrities, and politicians, in addition to everyday household and domestic objects. Beatrice Macias-Caballero uses Polaroids as a means to document landscapes and street scenes. Julio Barrera uses them as a visual diary, capturing strangers walking down the street and other neighborhood happenings.
We invite you to bring and share your own Polaroids of our border community: show us your local celebrities, your household collections, and the landscapes that make this place home.
Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was a visionary thinker with a particular way of looking at the world. With his camera at his side, Warhol shot at least a roll of film a day, capturing moments of his life and of his community. These photographs, along with his 16mm films, were a central part of his artistic practice across his career. Warhol is known for bringing American commercial images and objects into a fine arts conversation, and he also often made prints and mixed-media works featuring socialites, celebrities, B-movie actors, and participants in the golden age of New York’s night life. His commitment to documenting his surroundings and the individuals who made up his social milieu gives us a glimpse into the past and his particular context. Here you will see Warhol’s friends and patrons: Willie Shoemaker, a professional jockey; Ronee Blakley, an actress; Lynn Wyatt, a Texas-born art collector; Bob Colacello, a writer for Interview magazine; and Jerry Hall, a Texas-born model and actress who was married to Mick Jagger; among many others. Warhol’s Polaroids are a fascinating extension of his work in printmaking: intimate and hand-held, Polaroids also have an immediacy to them, and a uniform size and look. Polaroids were invented in the late 1930s, but they became a pop culture phenomenon in the 1970s: the Warhol Polaroids you see here were taken between 1971 and 1986. Their accessibility to everyday Americans as a form of hobbyist photography likely also appealed to Warhol, whose work often celebrated and elevated low-brow forms of creative expression.
Working in audiovisual production and photography, Julio Barrera holds a master’s degree in Creative Writing from the Universidad Central, where he completed a thesis titled Cenizas al Mar, a poetic exploration of death and its traces in archives. His hybrid work comes from his interest in the many kinds of knowledge that emerge from documentary forms and experiences. His creative explorations focus on collective and personal memory, family relationships, and death. His short film, Nuestros Hombres Ausentes, was selected to participate in the International Festival of Short Films of São Paulo Kinoforum, the Bogotá Festival of Shorts (Bogoshorts), and the International Exhibition of Documentary Cinema in Buenos Aires, and was awarded Best Documentary Short at the 2022 El Paso Film Festival. Barrera currently is completing his master’s degree in Creative Writing at UTEP and working on photographic and literary projects around migration and the quotidian experiences of the city.
Working predominantly with polaroid and 35 mm photography, Beatrice Macias-Caballero photographs objects in high contrast and shadow, suggesting the heightened mystery of the everyday. Born and raised in the lower valley of El Paso, Macias-Caballero completed her BA in Photo Communications at St. Edwards’ University in 2003. Inspired by photographers Nan Goldin, Robert Frank, and Danny Lyon, Macias-Caballero also draws inspiration from her Grandpa Lencho, who made surrealist masks from ordinary objects. Her work is dedicated to the memory of her parents, for their early support of her creative studies.
In 2008 the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts honored the 20th anniversary of the Warhol Foundation by making substantial gifts of Warhol’s photographic works to select universities and colleges. The Rubin Center was the recipient of one of these gifts and now owns 154 of Warhol’s photographs created between 1975 and 1986. A selection of these photographs will be on display.
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