This was taken in the early eighties, maybe 1980 or ’81. We were close to Andy during the period of the third Factory. The first Factory was on East 47th Street, the second on Union Square west. Id only been to the first one once or twice, while I was a frequent visitor to this one, which was on Union Square north. There was a statue of Andy below this location; I’m sure he would have loved it. Andy was happy to do Debbie’s portrait. In The Andy Warhol Diaries he says that if he was to have plastic surgery, he would want to come out looking like Debbie. One of my favorite aspects of the Andy portrait phenomena was the fact that he used the cheapest Polaroid camera. The Polaroid “Big Shot” was an unwieldy and unpopular thing, mainly due to the fact that it was focused by moving it back and forth in relation to the subject. Thrift stores were full of Big Shot cameras, and we bought several for Andy at different times. They would cost about twenty dollars each and the irony of his producing expensive paintings with them probably wasn’t lost on anyone, least of all him.
