A new career

Johnson appears to have first used a disposable camera for a practical purpose: documenting his backlog of unused collage fragments. But in January 1992, he told curator Clive Phillpot, “I’m pursuing my career as a photographer,” and in March he added, “I’m having fun with my throw-away camera.” Always faithful to the rapidity of his own thinking, Johnson found in the “throwaway” Fuji Quicksnap a way to give graphic form to ideas as they occurred to him.

Ray Johnson (1927–1995)
Rubble and photo credit
summer 1992
Commercially processed chromogenic print
4 × 6
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty; 2022.2:25
© Ray Johnson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ray Johnson (1927–1995)
Andy Warhol life dates on flowers
July 1992
Commercially processed chromogenic print
4 × 6
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty; 2022.2:21
© Ray Johnson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ray Johnson (1927–1995)
Shadow and manhole
spring 1992
Commercially processed chromogenic print
4 × 6
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty; 2022.2:31
© Ray Johnson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ray Johnson (1927–1995)
Flopped horseshoe crab and RJ
summer 1992
Commercially processed chromogenic print
4 × 6
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty; 2022.2:28
© Ray Johnson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York