Styles Genres Museums Artists Support

An open visual arts database with 1,000,000+ artworks, 85,000+ artists, and 1,800+ styles spanning centuries of human creativity.

Browse

Styles
Genres
Museums
Artists
Favorites

Popular Styles

Impressionism
Romanticism
Surrealism
Pop Art
Cubism
Realism

Museums

Art Institute of Chicago
MoMA
Rijksmuseum
Cleveland Museum of Art
The MET
Louvre

VisualArtsDB is free and open for everyone.

Support the project

© 2026 VisualArtsDB

William S. Burroughs by Allen Ginsberg — VisualArtsDB

Home
Photographs
William S. Burroughs

No image available

William S. Burroughs

1961

Medium: Gelatin silver print, printed 1990
Dimensions: 10 1/2 × 7 9/16" (26.7 × 19.3 cm)
Genre: Photographs
Museum: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, US

More by Allen Ginsberg

Dead creature, Xauen, Morocco 1957.

Dead creature, Xauen, Morocco 1957.

Allen Ginsberg, 1957

Herbert E. Huncke age 69 retired from the street on methadone program, head tilted wise-eyed for wry conversation, about to say something charming, flattering or honest at the kitchen table New York March 1984.

Herbert E. Huncke age 69 retired from the street on methadone program, head tilted wise-eyed for wry conversation, about to say something charming, flattering or honest at the kitchen table New York March 1984.

Allen Ginsberg, 1984

Myself seen by William Burroughs, Kodak Retina new-bought 2’d hand from Bowery hock-shop, our apartment roof Lower East Side between Avenues B & C, Tompkins Park trees under new antennae. Alan Ansen, Gregory Corso & Jack Kerouac visited, Jack’s _The Subterraneans_ records much of the scene, Burroughs & I edited letter-manuscripts he’d sent from Mexico & South America, Alene Lee (“Mardou Fox” of _The Subterraneans_) typed final drafts. Neighborhood was heavily Polish & Ukranian, some artists, junkies, medical students, cheap restaurants like “Leshkos” corner 7th & A, rent was only ¼ of my monthly $120 wage as newspaper copyboy. Time of “The Green Automobile” poem to Cassady, Fall 1953.

Myself seen by William Burroughs, Kodak Retina new-bought 2’d hand from Bowery hock-shop, our apartment roof Lower East Side between Avenues B & C, Tompkins Park trees under new antennae. Alan Ansen, Gregory Corso & Jack Kerouac visited, Jack’s _The Subterraneans_ records much of the scene, Burroughs & I edited letter-manuscripts he’d sent from Mexico & South America, Alene Lee (“Mardou Fox” of _The Subterraneans_) typed final drafts. Neighborhood was heavily Polish & Ukranian, some artists, junkies, medical students, cheap restaurants like “Leshkos” corner 7th & A, rent was only ¼ of my monthly $120 wage as newspaper copyboy. Time of “The Green Automobile” poem to Cassady, Fall 1953.

Allen Ginsberg, 1953

Allen Ginsberg Gregory Corso William Seward Burroughs, Garden Party July 29, 1985 Naropa Institute. Camera in Ted Morgan's hands

Allen Ginsberg Gregory Corso William Seward Burroughs, Garden Party July 29, 1985 Naropa Institute. Camera in Ted Morgan's hands

Allen Ginsberg, 1985

Poet Gregory Corso addressing cross atop the Grey Nuns’ Orphanage grotto Kerouac immortalized in book 4 Chapter 1, _Doctor Sax_, a “gigantic pyramid of steps upon which the Cross itself poked phallically up with its poor burden the Son of Man all skewered across it in his Agony and fright – undoubtedly this statue moved in the night.” Lowell, Massachusetts, March 17, 1986.

Poet Gregory Corso addressing cross atop the Grey Nuns’ Orphanage grotto Kerouac immortalized in book 4 Chapter 1, _Doctor Sax_, a “gigantic pyramid of steps upon which the Cross itself poked phallically up with its poor burden the Son of Man all skewered across it in his Agony and fright – undoubtedly this statue moved in the night.” Lowell, Massachusetts, March 17, 1986.

Allen Ginsberg, 1986

Elsa Dorfman, Harvey Silverglate, their son Isaac & late beloved brindled Greyhound "Moozer" on J.F.K. Street Cambridge, we came out for breakfast croissants right across the street, November 8, 1986.

Elsa Dorfman, Harvey Silverglate, their son Isaac & late beloved brindled Greyhound "Moozer" on J.F.K. Street Cambridge, we came out for breakfast croissants right across the street, November 8, 1986.

Allen Ginsberg, 1986

Peter Orlovsky age 21 with our first car, old delivery truck "The Hearse," Telegraph Hill a block up from our apartment rooms 1010 Montgomery Street near Broadway Corner. We drove to Yosemite, the car cost $125. San Francisco 1955.

Peter Orlovsky age 21 with our first car, old delivery truck "The Hearse," Telegraph Hill a block up from our apartment rooms 1010 Montgomery Street near Broadway Corner. We drove to Yosemite, the car cost $125. San Francisco 1955.

Allen Ginsberg, 1955

Portrait of composer Steven Taylor and half myself & C—III Leica in skyscraper lobby mirror, 58th St. & 6th avenue after radio Broadcast, late night November 13, 1986.

Portrait of composer Steven Taylor and half myself & C—III Leica in skyscraper lobby mirror, 58th St. & 6th avenue after radio Broadcast, late night November 13, 1986.

Allen Ginsberg, 1986

William S. Burroughs serious, sad lover's eyes, afternoon light in window, cover of just-published Ace Paperback Junkie in shadow propped on couch-back above right shoulder. Japanese kite against old hot-water-flat wallpaper. Finishing compilation of Yage Letters and Queer manuscript he visioned first Inter-zone "Market" routines looking out South window at fire escapes & clotheslines criss-crossing Lower East Side apartment house courtyards--sailed to Tangier in December. New York, Fall 1953.

William S. Burroughs serious, sad lover's eyes, afternoon light in window, cover of just-published Ace Paperback Junkie in shadow propped on couch-back above right shoulder. Japanese kite against old hot-water-flat wallpaper. Finishing compilation of Yage Letters and Queer manuscript he visioned first Inter-zone "Market" routines looking out South window at fire escapes & clotheslines criss-crossing Lower East Side apartment house courtyards--sailed to Tangier in December. New York, Fall 1953.

Allen Ginsberg, 1953

Francesco Clemente taking a break from painting my portrait in oil, his first from life model, here working on background of imaginary Afric head, his studio Broadway & Great Jones Street. We'd done several illuminated books together (notably _White Shroud_ 1984) & he'd published my Blake discourse "Your Reason & Blake's System" in his Palm-sized Hanuman Editions. Manhattan December 14, 1989.

Francesco Clemente taking a break from painting my portrait in oil, his first from life model, here working on background of imaginary Afric head, his studio Broadway & Great Jones Street. We'd done several illuminated books together (notably _White Shroud_ 1984) & he'd published my Blake discourse "Your Reason & Blake's System" in his Palm-sized Hanuman Editions. Manhattan December 14, 1989.

Allen Ginsberg, 1989

Elizabeth F. Holmes, her living room Waldoboro Maine, I visited with Robert Creely who has house outside of town-- June 24, 1985.

Elizabeth F. Holmes, her living room Waldoboro Maine, I visited with Robert Creely who has house outside of town-- June 24, 1985.

Allen Ginsberg, 1985

Jerry Heiserman (later Sufi "Hassan"), the car whose? Dan McCloud (later editor of _Georgia Strait_ under-ground paper), Allen Ginsberg, Bobbie Louise Hawkins Creeley, Professor Warren Tallman our host, Robert Creeley above big Charles Olson. Seated below left, Thomas Jackrell (student poet who wrote about Campbell’s Soup Cans), Philip Whalen poet, and postmodern poetics editor Don Allen- in front of Tallman's house- he'd sent me ticket to return round world after year-and-half in India for Vancouver B.C. Canada University Poetry Conference, last days of July 1963.

Jerry Heiserman (later Sufi "Hassan"), the car whose? Dan McCloud (later editor of _Georgia Strait_ under-ground paper), Allen Ginsberg, Bobbie Louise Hawkins Creeley, Professor Warren Tallman our host, Robert Creeley above big Charles Olson. Seated below left, Thomas Jackrell (student poet who wrote about Campbell’s Soup Cans), Philip Whalen poet, and postmodern poetics editor Don Allen- in front of Tallman's house- he'd sent me ticket to return round world after year-and-half in India for Vancouver B.C. Canada University Poetry Conference, last days of July 1963.

Allen Ginsberg, 1963