 Photograph: Oliviero Toscani/Art Gallery of South Australia Business art is the step that comes after art. I started as a commercial artist, and I want to finish as a business artist. After I did the thing called ‘art’ or whatever it’s called, I went into business art. I wanted to be an Art Businessman or a Business Artist. Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. During the hippie era, people put down the idea of business– they’d say, “Money is bad” and “Working is bad” but making money is art, and working is art, and good business is the best art –Andy Warhol What would be the results if you collected wisdom from one of the 20th century’s most famous artists? I decided to find out. Few people outside the art world can recognise an artist by name and work. Yet many people with zero interest in art recognise the name “Warhol” and are familiar with the neon-coloured art of Marilyn Monroe. How and why did Andy Warhol, real name Andrew Warhola, become such a household name? How can photographers and creators of today use his philosophy to improve their craft and make a living doing so? We’ll explore the essential lessons from Andy Warhol’s autobiography The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, a book that helps you understand the mindset that made him the branded name he is today. Since reading this book, I’ve made significant changes to my photography and mindset towards the creative industry, and I’m already seeing results. More on that later. LIFE OF ANDY: FROM WARHOLA TO WARHOL It’s 1964, The Beatles have invaded America, and Muhammed Ali is taking over the world of boxing as Ford Mustangs echo through the streets. At the same time, Andy Warhol is working in The Factory, his iconic New York studio. Using his signature silkscreen technique, he produces a series of vibrantly coloured Marilyn Monroe portraits– who passed away two years earlier. As he’s finishing the paintings, something unexpected happens. Andy’s friend Dorothy Podber visits him and asks if she can ‘shoot’ the paintings. Thinking she wants to photograph them, he agrees. She then pulls out a gun and shoots through a stack of the paintings. “Shot Marilyns” are born. Fast forward 58 years. It’s the 9th of May 2022. New York City. The art world holds its breath as Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn goes up for auction at Christie’s. Experts predict a record-breaking sale. The work sells for a record-smashing $195 million. Warhol became the most expensive 20th-century work ever sold. “In 2006,” Don Thompson writes in The $12 million Stuffed Shark “1,010 Warhol works with a total value of $199 million were sold at auction– five a day, every working day of the year. Forty-three of those works sold for over $1 million each– four more than Picasso”. Warhol’s career didn’t start this way. “Remember all who succeed in life”, writes Napoleon Hill in his classic book Think and Grow Rich “Get off to a bad start and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they ‘arrive’”. Warhol’s career follows this trajectory. He began making what people later called Pop Art in the early sixties. No one took him seriously. His early self-promotion attempts included showing his work to Leo Castelli, the famous art dealer of the time. He dismissed it as unoriginal. He even tried donating a Shoe drawing to the Museum of Modern Art. It was returned. How did Warhol go from being rejected to the celebrity artist he’s known as today? It started in 1962 when Warhol exhibited 32 paintings of Campbell’s Soup Cans in Los Angeles. Irving Blum, the director of the iconic Ferus Gallery, exhibited it. This was Warhol’s first taste of success and publicity in the art world. Aged 34. The gallery opposite displayed actual soup cans with a sign saying ‘We have the real thing, only 29 cents’. Blum sold the work for $14.5 million in 1995 to MoMA, the same museum that rejected his work 3 decades before. Warhol was paid $1,000 by Blum for the paintings. It was later in 1962 when Warhol started his signature celebrity silkscreens. This is what catapulted him into stardom. His silkscreens were often made after tragic events in celebrities’ lives. Marilyn Monroe after her death. Jackie Kennedy after her husband’s assassination. Elizabeth Taylor during her fight with substance abuse. All these works produced publicity for Warhol. In 1963, he moved into a studio he called The Factory, indicating art could be produced on an assembly line like a car. You have to hang on in periods when your style isn’t popular, because if it’s good, it’ll come back, and you’ll be recognised as a beauty once again. –Andy Warhol During the 1970s, his work became less favourable. Two consecutive shows sold no work. He supported The Factory by doing commercial portraits, for tens of thousands of dollars each, reaching $40,000 in the 1980s. 3rd June 1968. Valerie Solanas, a radical feminist writer and ‘friend’ fires 3 bullets at Warhol. Two bullets miss. The third strikes his abdomen. Damaging his spleen, liver, stomach, oesophagus and lungs. Warhol was taken to hospital. Operated on for 5 hours. Pronounced medically dead, before being resuscitated. He’s made to wear a medical corset for the rest of his life. Right when I was being shot and ever since I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it’s all television. –Andy Warhol Warhol became more withdrawn. Hiring full-time security. The Factory’s previous open-door policy was removed. His post-assassination-attempt work was more sombre. As shown in series like Skulls, which were silkscreen prints of skulls in different colours When I was dying, I had to write my name on a check. –Andy Warhol Warhol missed death by an inch, but the damage to his body would have a lasting impact. In 1987 he underwent gallbladder surgery, an operation he put off due to fears of hospitals. His condition was more severe than predicted. The operation was successful. His private nurse checked on him. He was stable. Two hours later, he was unresponsive. He died, aged 58. I don’t believe in it, because you’re not around to know it’s happened. I can’t say anything about it because I’m not prepared for it. –Andy Warhol.  Andy Warhol works: McGaw Graphics website. ANDY WARHOL’S KEY LESSONS As soon as you stop wanting something, you get it. At the time I was feeling the most gregarious and looking for bosom friendships, I couldn’t find any takers, so that exactly when I was alone was when I felt the most like not being alone. The moment I decided I’d rather be alone and not have anyone telling me their problems, everybody I’d never even seen before in my life started running after me to tell me things I’d just decided I didn’t think were a good idea to hear about. As soon as I became a loner in my mind, that’s when I got what you might call a ‘following'. –Andy Warhol After you stop wanting things, having them won’t make you go crazy. After you stop wanting them is when you can handle having them.–Andy Warhol As soon as you stop wanting something, you get it. I’ve found that to be absolutely axiomatic. –Andy Warhol Having an independent mind by removing yourself from the herd mentality gives you more friends. Being independent makes you less needy, and more likely to listen to other people’s problems, rather than chat about your own. This is an advantage. Everyone wants to talk about their problems. Most people don’t listen. If you’re the rare person who does listen and does their own thing rather than following the crowd, people will gravitate towards you. Letting go of attachment to specific outcomes can paradoxically lead to their manifestation. In some Eastern Philosophies, detachment is part of the journey to contentment and fulfilment. Andy uses reverse psychology. You’re less emotional about the outcome if you decide you don't want it anymore. You’re more likely to take risks, and less likely to overthink. Less overthinking means a greater bias for action. More action means a higher probability of the outcome happening. As soon as you start taking the important actions, you get closer to getting it. If you want something so bad you overthink, you become paralysed. You drown in your desires. Know your worth. Your pictures are your products. You should always have a product that’s not just ‘you’… an artist should count up his pictures, so you always know exactly how much you’re worth, so you don’t get stuck thinking your product is you. –Andy Warhol People forget photography is a craft. Photos are a unique, differentiated and finite product. A one of a kind. As artists, we need to know our worth. If you’re being hired, don’t sell yourself low. Consider how much your camera costs, how many hours of work you’re required to do, the cost of travel, the cost of your rent, living costs, and where and how they’ll use your work. There are websites online where you can calculate all this. You’re being underpaid. It’s your fault. Photography isn’t an easy thing you should be expected to do for free. You’ve spent years perfecting your craft. Your work is great. It’s unique. It has value. If you don’t value your work, who will? Do you think Andy Warhol thought his work was worthless? Do you think he would’ve charged $40,000 per portrait if he believed his work was invaluable? Warhol also emphasises the importance of knowing what is most valuable. Your pictures. Your pictures are your net worth. Start promoting them as valuable, and they’ll become more valuable. You can’t make a picture and leave it on your hard drive, collecting digital dust, expecting it to be worth $100,000 or $1 million. Show them to people. Repeatedly. Online, in magazines, in galleries, in competitions. You can’t be a well-known photographer without great photos. You should always have a product that’s not just you.
Turning your images into finite prints is an effective way to increase their value. For example, NORD INDUSTRIEL are limited edition prints that explore the landscape of Northern France, which has been altered by intensive agriculture for centuries. Think like a businessman. Act like a businessman. I had by that time decided ‘business’ was the best art. –Andy Warhol Business art is the step that comes after art. I started as a commercial artist, and I want to finish as a business artist. After I did the thing called ‘art’ or whatever it’s called, I went into business art. I wanted to be an Art Businessman or a Business Artist. Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. During the hippie era, people put down the idea of business– they’d say “Money is bad” and “Working is bad” but making money is art, and working is art, and good business is the best art. –Andy Warhol An artist is somebody who produces things that people don’t need to have but that he–for some reason–thinks it would be a good idea to give them. Business art. Art Business. The Business Art Business. –Andy Warhol Warhol wasn’t an artist. He was a brand. He was a business. Art was his product. As David Yarrow said, “There’s no nobility in being the poor artist”. Working isn’t bad. Especially when work feels like play. Photographers should find photography playful, not work-full. Money isn't bad either. Money gives you greater control of your time. If a photographer makes a lot of money. They will have more free time. What will they do with this extra free time and money? Make more photos, ideally. If you want to be a full-time, professional photographer, and make money from doing what you love, see it as a business. That doesn’t mean you have to wear a suit and tie whilst making photos, but that’d be pretty cool. I might start doing that. But seeing your images as unique, differentiated products that others can find use in is fruitful. There have been so many artists who were so bad at marketing it’s a named phenomenon. The Death Effect– the world discovering an incredible artist whose work becomes valuable after they die because people finally discover it. Don’t be another Van Gogh. Treat your photos as the valuable, unique works of art they are. Sell and promote them like that. Photography. Not a hobby, a business. An art business. Photograph things people don’t want to see. Sometimes something can look beautiful just because it’s different in some way from the other things around it. –Andy Warhol There are so many people here to compete with that changing your tastes to what other people don’t want is your only hope of getting anything. –Andy Warhol For instance, on beautiful, sunny days in New York, it gets so crowded outside you can’t even see Central Park through all the bodies. But very early on Sunday mornings in horrible rainy weather, when no one wants to get up and no one wants to get out even if they are up, you can go out and walk all over and have the streets to yourself and it’s wonderful. –Andy Warhol Andy Warhol was the master of making art of things people thought they didn’t want to see. Think Campbell’s soup cans. He turned the mundane into magnificent. The banal into the brilliant. Another example of this is photographer Stephen Shore. He photographed mundane. He turned what people thought wasn’t aesthetic–like a Chevron petrol station– into the aesthetic. What do you find interesting that others overlook? What do you think can make a great photo that is mundane, ‘boring’ or non-aesthetic? Photograph that. Instead of going to the spots where every photographer goes, do the opposite. Photograph New York, Texas, rather than New York City. Go where no one’s looking. Photograph what others aren’t.
The Car and KOS 2 are two prints exploring the side of Kos (Greece) that most tourists don't see. From my limited series The Dark Side of Kos Be in control of your life. They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. –Andy Warhol Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years when they could just say ‘So what?’. –Andy Warhol When somebody writes a really mean article I always just let it go because who are you to say it isn’t true? –Andy Warhol Andy couldn’t control what people said and wrote about him. So what? He could choose how to react. Most times he gave no reaction. Let your photos do the talking. If people dislike your work there’ll be an equal amount of people who like it. If you don’t get any hate or criticism, you’re not successful. Utilise empty space in your photos. Empty space is never wasted space. –Andy Warhol To be rich is to have one space. One big empty space. –Andy Warhol Less is more in photography. The less clutter the better. Clutter–anything that distracts from the main subject– creates tension points. Tension breaks an image. The antidote to tension points in a photo is empty space. I’ve been practising this philosophy through my minimalist style of photography. Utilising overexposed skies and backgrounds to draw out the subject and remove tension points. It’s one of my favourite styles. Like Andy said– empty doesn’t mean wasted. You don’t want anything in the image you don’t want to be there. Empty space is better than a distracting bush that steals your eye from the pin-sharp subject. Empty space is never wasted space. 3 Key Takeaways to Improve Your Photography  Source: Guy Hepner 1. Photograph different. Photograph things others aren’t photographing. Go to different places. Shoot overlooked subjects. Tell different stories. Warhol worked on overlooked subjects, like soup cans, which were different to everyone else. This made his work unique and, therefore more popular. 2. Be a Business Artist, not an Art Artist. Don’t be a hobbyist. An amateur. Believe your work is valuable. Start taking your photography seriously. Treat it like a business– a valuable service to others. Make your photos an asset for others to invest in. A one-off work of art. A high-value, branded and finite product. Like famous 19th-century art dealer Joseph Duveen said, “When you pay high for the priceless, you acquire it cheaply”. The more money you make from your photography, the more time and opportunities you’ll have to make even better art. What’s wrong with that? 3. Utilise empty space in your images. Avoid cluttered images. Avoid tension points. Avoid distracting elements that detract from the subject and narrative. Make images that contain only the essentials. Empty space is never wasted space. A Person Worthy of Study Andy Warhol was more than a Pop Artist who wore a wig and made art of Campbell’s Soup Cans. He was a brand. He was a pioneer of the celebrity artist, establishing a role in popular culture which has persisted decades after his death. His philosophy of focusing on overlooked subjects, seeing photography as a business and your photos as high value differentiated products are all nuggets of wisdom I will be eating as I continue my photography adventure. Will you? I was trying to think the other day about what you do now in America if you want to be successful. Before, you were dependable and wore a good suit. Looking around, I guess that today you have to do all the same things but not wear a good suit. I guess that’s all it is. Think rich. Look poor. And that is where I’ll leave it. I highly recommend this book if you want to make a career as a successful photographer and creator of any art. If you buy the book using the link below, you’ll be supporting me at no extra cost to you. Thank you for reading and I’ll see you again next week. Jacob J. Watson-Howland  Read the book yourself below. If you buy the book using the link below, you’ll be supporting me at no extra cost to you.
amzn.to/4hSjRwO (The Philosophy of Andy Warhol) amzn.to/4hUg7uI The 12 Million Dollar Stuffed Shark (Don Thompson) Other books to read before you die https://www.jacobwatsonhowland.com/best-photography-business-books.html View my best limited-edition prints https://www.jacobwatsonhowland.com/featured-fine-art-photography-prints.html What’s in my camera bag? https://www.jacobwatsonhowland.com/pro-photography-camera-gear.html Instagram– keep updated for future episodes. www.instagram.com/jacobwatsonhowland
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