2009.82.1

• photography

This is a black and white photograph of Lawrence Ferlinghetti standing by a hand-painted sign above a rack of books on artists. The sign reads, "I AM THE DOOR."

Micaëla Gallery printout:"LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI / I AM THE DOOR, CITY LIGHTS BOOKS / San Francisco 1965 / Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a Beat poet, artist and owner/publisher of City Lights Books (the first soft cover book store in the US). He was the first Poet laureate of San Francisco. This photograph was taken in the basement of City Lights. Ferlinghetti told me that City Lights used to be a Holy Roller church and that he had left up the Biblical tracts on the walls. While posing for me in front of 'I Am the Door' Ferlinghetti pulled his coat up to reveal the 'door'."