Portraits
O-S Page 1
Jacqueline
Onassis
I met Jacqueline Onassis in 1978. She was a remarkable woman and, in my
experience, nothing like all the silliness that has been written about
her for the last 45 years. In December 1979, when this photograph was
taken, she was hard at work on the book Berenice Abbott and I were
doing together. Jackie (yes, we did call her, Jackie) was our editor,
and a good one. She’d come down to my Christopher Street studio to go
over photographs. It was her first visit. She wanted to look at each of
Berenice’s photographs very carefully and make a reasoned decision
about the images to be included in the book.
We worked for a few hours and then she wanted to take a break, which in
reality meant looking at pictures by people other than Berenice. We
wandered around my apartment and she carefully looked at everything
that was in a frame. Then she spotted Henri Jonquiêres’ book
Atget – Photographe de Paris, which she asked to borrow. I said I’d be
pleased to let her keep it as long as she wished, but only if I could
take a portrait of her holding it. To which she immediately agreed. The
Deardorff and film plates were still ready. I made three exposures, a
front view, a side view and one with her assistant, Ray Roberts. I like
Berenice ‘s side view of Atget, just as I like the side view of Mrs.
Onassis.
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