Ten Amazing Photos of Artists, By Artists

It’s no surprise that some of the most captivating images of artists—whether candid or posed, at work or at play—have been captured by fellow artists. Here are ten of our favorites on Artsy, as well as the stories behind them.

1. Jean-Michel Basquiat by Pierre Houles

Pierre Houles was a flamboyant French photographer and popular figure in New York’s social scene of the 1970s and ’80s. A frequenter of Studio 54 and Warhol’s Factory, he is best known for his tenure at Esquire.

2. Jasper Johns by Robert Rauschenberg

Rauschenberg shot this image of Johns during their six-year affair; also pictured is the pair’s friend Lois Long, a popular writer for The New Yorker and a big-time flapper in her day.

3. David Wojnarowicz by Peter Hujar

Hujar was Wojnarowicz’s lover and mentor. Upon the former’s death from AIDS-related illness at age 53, Wojnarowicz wrote: “his death is now as if it’s printed on celluloid on the backs of my eyes.”

4. Auguste Rodin by Pierre Choumoff

Rodin famously believed in the importance of photography to document his practice, and Choumoff was the last photographer he collaborated with—indeed Choumoff even captured the master sculptor on his deathbed.

5. Jackson Pollock by Rudy Burckhardt

A friend to generations of American artists, the Swiss-born Burckhardt shot some of his most famous images of the AbEx circle—including Hans Hofmann, Willem de Kooning, and Pollock and his wife Lee Krasner—as they burst onto the international art scene.

6. Andy Warhol by Evelyn Hofer

Once called “the most famous unknown photographer in America,” Hofer is equally known for her street photography and landscapes as she is for her carefully composed, deceptively simple portraits, like this one of a cool Warhol posed with his Elvis portraits.

7. Georgia O’Keeffe by Fred Stein

Stein was known for capturing the luminaries of the early 20th century in sensitive portraits, including this one of O’Keeffe as well as his most famous image of Albert Einstein.

8. Willem de Kooning by Ellen Auerbach

Trained at the Bauhaus, Auerbach moved to New York in 1940, where she would soon befriend major artists like Fairfield Porter and de Kooning, the latter whom she would famously photograph.

9. Jay DeFeo by Wallace Berman

Though best known for his pioneering assemblage works, Berman shot many photos of his friend and fellow Bay Area artist DeFeo. Some were more explicit.

10. Robert Mapplethorpe by Lloyd Ziff

In the 1960s, Ziff attended Pratt with Mapplethorpe, and although the two were never particularly close, they were close enough to partake in a collaborative photo shoot that would eternalize a twentysomething Robert and his girlfriend, Patti Smith, in their pre-stardom, child-like innocence.