Christopher Makos

(American, born 1948)

Christopher Makos is an American artist, photographer, and author. A prominent figure in the New York downtown art scene of the 1970s and 1980s, Makos befriended and created raw, indelible portraits of the likes of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Patti Smith, and Keith Haring. Characterized by his spontaneous approach and lively documentation of urban life, “I know my story in New York City,” he has observed. “Here it's always unexpected and new and different.” Born in 1948 in Lowell, MA, he grew up in California and went on to study architecture in Paris, briefly working as an apprentice for the famed Surrealist photographer Man Ray. Among Makos’ many seminal photobooks are Warhol: A Photographic Memoir, White Trash Uncut, and Equipose. His work has been exhibited internationally, including the Guggenheim Bilbao, Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York, and the Tate Modern in London, and his photographs have regularly appeared in publications such as Interview, Paris Match, and The Wall Street Journal. He continues to live and work in New York, NY.