ANNIE LEIBOVITZ
(American, b. 1949)
Keith Haring, New York
1986, platinum print
signed, titled, dated, and numbered 15/30 along lower margin
plate: 18 7/8 x 23 in., frame: 28 x 32 in.
Provenance: The Collection of a San Diego, California Lady.

Other Notes: Noted editorial photographer Annie Leibovtiz was commissioned by a Florida magazine to shoot the artist Keith Haring in 1986. Though the magazine article was never published, this image remains one of Leibovitz’s most iconic photographs. In the 2008 book Annie Leibovitz at Work, the artist recalls,
“Keith and I talked on the phone and I asked him if he had ever painted himself. He said no, although a couple of years earlier Andy Warhol had arranged for him to paint Grace Jones and to have Robert Mapplethorpe photograph her when Keith was finished.

We decided that he would paint his torso for me. We shot it in the studio, on a set constructed to look like someone’s living room, then painted it white. When Keith arrived he painted the room with black lines in less than forty-five minutes. Then he painted his upper body in about five minutes. When he came out of the dressing room he was wearing white painters’ pants, but it just seemed obvious to both of us at that point that he should paint the rest of him.

It’s hard to paint yourself. Keith did only the front. I loved the way he painted his penis. It was so witty, with an elongated line. The pictures took only a few minutes, and when we finished, Keith didn’t want to stop. He said he felt dressed and wanted to go out. I suggested we go to Times Square, which was a few blocks away. This was 1986, and it was still pretty rough. The peep shows and the porn houses were still there. In the car on the way over I told my assistants that we were going to have to work fast because we’d probably get arrested.

I photographed Keith in back of the statue of George M. Cohan in Duffy Square and in front of a bank. It was a cold winter night and this painted, naked guy was walking around, and nobody, including a couple of policemen who were there, paid any attention to us.”