Rare Photo Shows Steve Jobs’s Rebellious Spirit As He Flips The Bird To IBM

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Steve Jobs and IBM
Steve Jobs sends a message to the competition
Photo: Andy Hertzfield

This rare photograph of Steve Jobs demonstrates the Apple co-founder’s infamous rebellious spirit as he “flips the bird” outside an IBM building in New York City. It was taken in 1983 when the Macintosh team visited the city for a meeting with Newsweek, and was posted to Google+ today by Andy Hertzfield, a member of the original Macintosh development team.

Hertzfield posted the image “in memoriam for Steve Jobs as 2011 draws to a close”:

In memoriam for Steve Jobs as 2011 draws to a close, here’s one more rare photo that illustrates his rebellious spirit. In December 1983, a few weeks before the Mac launch, we made a quick trip to New York City to meet with Newsweek, who was considering doing a cover story on the Mac. The photo was taken spontaneously as we walked around Manhattan by Jean Pigozzi, a wild French jet setter who was hanging out with us at the time. Somehow I ended up with a copy of it.

Hertzfield reports that his editor previously begged him to include the image in his book, but that he was too timid to ask for Steve’s permission at the time, “especially since IBM was still making CPUs for Apple at the time.”

What a great photograph. Thanks, Andy!

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