Billie Holiday – New York
- Photographer
- Moneta Sleet Jr., American, 1926–1996
- Depicted
- Billie Holiday, American, 1915–1959
- Date
- 1956, printed c.1970
- Material
- Gelatin silver print
- photographed in
- New York, New York, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Photographs
- Collection
- Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
- Current Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 19 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (50.2 x 29.2 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Johnson Publishing Company
- Rights
- © Johnson Publishing Co., Inc.
- Object Number
- 468:1991
NOTES
Jazz singer Billie Holiday is captured in a vulnerable moment by photographer Moneta Sleet Jr. The portrait concentrates on Holiday, wearing a glamorous satin robe, as she rests her head on her hand in apparent exhaustion. Sleet deliberately reveals Holiday’s needle marked arms, visually referencing her lifelong struggle with drug addiction. Featured in the September 1956 issue of Ebony magazine, this intimate portrait accompanied the article “Billie Holiday’s Tragic Life.”
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