Arbus’s portraits of Jorge Luis Borges were the last two pictures that Harper’s Bazaar published of her work. Arbus had a strong relationship with the magazine, which had a tradition of commissioning new photography and using innovative design. This was led by its influential art directors, first Alexey Brodovitch and, in the 1960s, Marvin Israel. Israel became an important photography editor, working on books of Arbus’s work, as well as editing seminal monographs by Richard Avedon and Nan Goldin. Borges was a renowned Argentinian writer whose work had only been translated into English in 1962, and was now gaining worldwide recognition. This portrait appeared alongside a portrait of the writer with his wife, and several of his poems.