I’d asked Robert Frank to take portrait for Selected Poems dust jacket, he showed up late Sunday afternoon, truck parked across from my apartment, yelled up, he had no camera. I came down with Leica & Fuji 6×9, he took some photos midstreet by his car, I snapped him thus, then with my Fuji he said, “This’ll be it,” as long lambent orange sunlight rayed down East 12th Street from Hudson River horizon, it worked fine for book, he was relaxed, accidentally unerring. N.Y. June 9, 1996.

Image not available — this artwork is under copyright

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Medium

gelatin silver print

Dimensions

image: 28 x 18.7 cm (11 x 7 3/8 in.) sheet: 35.3 x 18.7 cm (13 7/8 x 7 3/8 in.)

Classification

Photograph

Department

CPH

Museum

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Credit

Gift of Gary S. Davis

Accession Number

2009.103.33

About the Artist

Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), born in Newark, New Jersey, emerged as a multifaceted figure in American culture, best known as a Beat Generation poet but also a prolific visual artist whose photographs, drawings, and prints captured the raw energy of his era. His early life offers little documentation on artistic training, though he attended Columbia University in the 1940s, where he formed connectio...

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