Before there were selfies on the Internet, pop artist Andy Warhol — who predicted that one day everyone would be famous for 15 minutes — was consumed with capturing his life in pictures.

The artist took thousands of Polaroid instant photos during his career, and many of the shots are now being published for the first time. “We sifted through 20,000,” explains Reuel Golden, editor of the new book Andy Warhol: Polaroids, which features 700 of his best photos.

andy warhol

Andy in January 1985.

“When [celebrities] visited NYC, Andy’s was the place to go to and to hang out,” explains Golden. Adds Bob Colacello, a former editor of Andy’s Interview magazine: “These Polaroids [are] artifacts from that era and that jet-set kind of world that Andy found himself in the 70s.”

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Some of the photos are quite candid, like the shot of Audrey Hepburn lounging on a couch (“She’s incredibly stylish and I think he was photographing her as a fan”), or of designer Diane von Furstenberg smoking a cigarette, opines Golden.

To read the full story on Andy and to see his rare photos, pick up the new issue of Closer Weekly, on newsstands now!