Arthur Rimbaud in New York by David Wojnarowicz
1978, printed 1990, Gelatin silver print, 7 15/16 × 9 15/16in. (20.2 × 25.2 cm), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

David Wojnarowicz’s life began with instability and grit. His childhood was marked by his family’s tumultuous relationship with his abusive, alcoholic father, and at the age of 11, he and his siblings moved with their mom to live in Hell’s Kitchen. This move, however, did not stop the restlessness that Wojnarowicz felt as a teen and as a result caused him to run away from home. It was in this period where he began to read authors like Arthur Rimbaud, someone who Wojnarowicz heavily identified with due to his rebellious and outsider persona. By using someone’s face like Rimbaud around New York City, Wojnarowicz felt as if he was taking someone from a different time period into what was his own personal world of hustling in places like Times Square or the Lower East Side, and what it was like to just be living on the streets in New York in the 70’s.

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