Rauschenberg attended Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina, for the 1948-49 academic year. Rauschenberg began working with the artist Susan Weil on blueprint monoprints in 1949. LIFE magazine featured the artists in its April 9, 1951 issue, including this photograph of Rauschenberg working with Patricia Pearman, who served as a nude model for several of the works.

Returning to Black Mountain for the summer session of 1951, he enrolled in photographer Hazel-Frieda Larsen’s class and was exposed to guest lectures by photographers Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, and others. That summer and the next, he produced multiple portfolios of photographs. Enraptured with the medium, Rauschenberg expressed his desire to photograph the entire continental United States “foot by foot.” Instead, he photographed the artist and fellow Black Mountain student Cy Twombly and his work, helping Twombly to win a travel fellowship to Europe. The two artists departed in August of 1952, settling in Rome and traveling to Morocco, where Rauschenberg worked for a time. Bringing only a Rolleiflex camera, Rauschenberg continued to experiment with photography while abroad. Photography remained central to his art throughout his career.

Artist Robert Rauschenberg creating artwork using a nude model (Susan, his wife) on blueprint paper with a sun lamp, New York, New York, 1951. The LIFE Picture Collection. © Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. Photo by Wallace Kirkland.

Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled, 1984. Screenprint with fabric and photo collage on hand-cut paper, edition 9/75, 31 7/8 x 26 3/8 inches (81 x 67 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Gift of Blake Byrne (T’57), Susan and David Gersh, Bea Gersh, and Carol and David Appel; 2006.9.1. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Licensed by VAGA, New York, New York. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.