Self-Portrait on my seventieth birthday in Borsalino hat and black cashmere-silk scarf from Milan & Dublin Thornproof-tweed suit, Oleg Cassini tie from Goodwill shirt same source, kitchen window mid-day, I stayed home & worked on _Selected Poems 1947 – ’95_ proofs after returning from Walker Art Centre reading — Beat exhibition weekend. Monday, June 3, 1996, N.Y.

Art Historical Context

This gelatin silver print captures Allen Ginsberg on his seventieth birthday, June 3, 1996, in his New York kitchen. The poet stands before a window in mid-day light, dressed in a Borsalino hat, black cashmere-silk scarf, Dublin Thornproof-tweed suit, and an Oleg Cassini tie acquired from Goodwill. The unusually detailed title records that he had just returned from a Walker Art Center reading tied to a Beat exhibition and spent the day correcting proofs for his *Selected Poems 1947–1995*. Ginsberg, a central figure of the Beat Generation, frequently turned his camera on friends, travels, and ...

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...