Photograph: Georgia O’Keeffe After Supper, Ghost Ranch, 1975

Ghost Ranch, New Mexico: np, 1975. Fine. ARTIST’S PROOF, SIGNED BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER BUDNIK. A wonderful, evocative photograph of O’Keeffe at 87 years old, taken at her beloved Ghost Ranch, just north of Abiquiú, New Mexico.

By March 1975, when this photograph was taken, O’Keeffe had begun to explore pottery as her chief artistic medium. The photographer Budnik powerfully foregrounds the hands that shaped the clay, reminding us of O’Keeffe’s relentless pursuit of art and creativity. At an age where most famous people are photographed looking wise or contemplative, it’s refreshing to see Budnik capturing the joy of O’Keeffe in her later stage of life.

The photographer Dan Budnik, whose career ranged from artist portraiture to major documentary work on the Civil Rights Movement, brought to his sitters an unusual mixture of intimacy and formal rigor. His 1975 photographs of O’Keeffe at Ghost Ranch are among the most compelling visual records her in the last years of her life.

Gelatin silver print, artist’s proof (noted “AP” by Budnik at bottom left), from an unspecified edition; printed later. Not examined out of frame. Size: 16 x 10.5 in; framed to an overall size of approx. 26 x 23 in. Fine condition.