“Big Apple” and Donald Trump (Fortune magazine photo, 1989)
A famous photo of New York City businessman Donald Trump was taken by Michael O’Brien and published in Fortune magazine on September 11, 1989. The same photo was used for the cover of Trump’s book, Trump: Surviving at the Top (1990).
The photo shows Donald Trump, a blue sky with clouds, and an apple that he is tossing or catching. The apple possibly symbolizes New York City, the “Big Apple.”
Another photo of Donald Trump with an apple, by Robin G. London of Getty Images, was published on CNET on June 18, 2016.
Wikipedia: Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American media personality and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Trump attended Fordham University and the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1968. He became the president of his father Fred Trump’s real estate business in 1971 and renamed it to The Trump Organization. Trump expanded the company’s operations to building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. He later started various side ventures, mostly by licensing his name. Trump and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions, including six bankruptcies. He owned the Miss Universe brand of beauty pageants from 1996 to 2015. From 2003 to 2015 he co-produced and hosted the reality television series The Apprentice.
Wikipedia: Trump: Surviving at the Top
Trump: Surviving at the Top is a 1990 book written by businessman Donald Trump and journalist Charles Leerhsen, and published by Random House. In 1991, Warner Books purchased the paperback rights to the book and re-released it as The Art of Survival.
The photograph used for the book’s cover was originally taken by Michael O’Brien for an article of Fortune magazine published on September 11, 1989. The photograph was later installed at the National Portrait Gallery after Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States.
National Portrait Gallery
Photographing a Future President
[Photograph of a man throwing an apple against a blue sky background
Donald Trump / Michael O’Brien / 1989 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution / Gift of Sally and Bill Wittliff / © Michael O’Brien]
I was assigned to photograph Donald Trump for Fortune magazine in 1989. Fortune was doing a story on billionaires. Obviously, no one knew then what his future held!
As soon as I got the assignment, I visualized the image: Trump against a Magritte sky, looking confident and back on top. Trump had just come through a rough period in his business, but was bouncing back.
On the day of the shoot, I realized the photo needed an accent—something unexpected, but revealing. Bingo! A big red apple popped into my head. I was living in Brooklyn at the time and stopped off at the neighborhood fruit stand. I bought a couple of great candidates before the drive into Manhattan.
I began by photographing Trump without the apple; you never know how cooperative the subject will be. I got the “safe shots” of Trump solo against the backdrop. Next, I brought up the idea of him tossing the apple. He got it immediately. ”Great idea!” he said.
The shoot went perfectly. Trump was more than cooperative. This was before the age of digital retouch. I had to capture the moment perfectly on film. A surreal sky with a red apple floating magically at its arc. He tossed the apple again and again and again. His only complaint was that his arm was getting tired.
I knew I had made an excellent picture. The photograph was published in the September 11, 1989, issue of Fortune. The editors ran it a few sizes larger than a postage stamp. I was miffed. A good shot had gone to waste. This issue, like most newspapers and magazines, went out with the kitty litter a couple of weeks later—gone and forgotten.
A year later, an editor at Random House saw the photo and seized on it for the cover of Trump’s autobiography Trump: Surviving at the Top. I felt a little better. The picture had gotten a second life; the image had grown a little larger.
The original image then sat dormant in my files for more than twenty years.
Between 2009 and 2011, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery accepted a selection of my portraits as gifts from NPG Commissioner Bill Wittliff and his wife Sally. I gathered my favorite photographs: Willie Nelson, LeBron James, Don DeLillo, Howard Finster, Larry McMurtry, Warren Buffett, and others. I was nearly finished rounding up the images when I remembered the ’89 photograph of Donald Trump. Why not, I thought?
The National Portrait Gallery acquired the Trump photograph along with sixteen of my other portraits. The Trump portrait went on display in the museum in January 2017. It’s the third life for the image, which has become ironic. Who knew all those years ago that Trump would become the U.S. president?
They say a cat has nine lives… Well, this photograph has had at least three lives to date.
-Michael O’Brien
CNET
Apple cites Trump as it turns its back on GOP convention, says report
The company won’t provide any support to the Republican National Convention because of The Donald’s inflammatory remarks, says Politico.
Edward Moyer
June 18, 2016 3:03 p.m. PT
[Forbidden fruit.
Robin G. London/Getty Images]
If Trump can boycott Apple, Apple can boycott Trump.