Beardsley Ruml
Tetsu Okuhara, American (b. 1946)
Susan, 1971

I consider the full version (see below) the finest photograph I've ever seen.

Acquired from Light Gallery in NYC in mid-1970s. I often stayed at Tetsu's apartment on 42nd St at Lex when in the city in the 1980s. I first saw the full version of Susan at MOMA shortly after John Szarkowski purchased it immediately upon seeing it during an interview with Tetsu. I had come around a corner, saw it and was stunned! It was at the time a unique print as Tetsu had promised Szarkowski when it was purchased; Szarkowski later agreed to permit an edition of 10, one of which was sold at auction in 1999.

The smaller top strip was published in LIFE magazine as "picture of the week" and produced in a small edition.