An explicit Lee Friedlander photo of Madonna shot in 1979 sold for $37,500 at auction in New York yesterday, beating the previous record for a photo of the pop icon, a Herb Ritts photo used for the singer's True Blue album cover, in 2006, which sold for $18,000.
Madonna earned $25 for the photo session, three years before her first singles “Everybody” and “Burning Up” were released.
“The photo of Madonna was among 150 images from the collection of Leon and Michaela Constantiner, which included portraits of Linda Evangelista, Joan Crawford and Lana Turner. The aspiring singer had replied to a newspaper advert by celebrated American photographer Lee Friedlander, who shot her for a series of nudes he was working on. The full-frontal image, and five others taken at the same session, were sold to Playboy in the 1980s. “
See the full photo HERE (nsfw).
