While in school he founded the literary & art magazine Undine with a board of directors that included NY Times Executive Editor Harvey Shapiro, Larry Rivers and Tennessee Williams.

He took up journalism mainly under the mentorship of Shapiro and Truman Capote who encouraged him to pursue that artform "because if you want to know what great artists are really like they can fool you with media stories and awards but not with their eyes".

[citation needed] To that end he interviewed and/or photographed a wide portfolio of artists who interested him including Capote, Williams, Albee, Warhol, Rivers, Nureyev, Lou Reed, The Ramones, Blondie, Madonna; such leading sports figures as Ali, Jordan and Namath and a wide scope of comedians including Carlin, Klein, Murray, Belushi, Radner, Joan Rivers, and Phyllis Diller.

He took his MFA under John Ashbery and, on the advice of comedian George Carlin who he had interviewed and photographed, wrote his first book and the first on the television show Saturday Night Live!

In 1981/83 he created a portfolio called 'Androgyny' which included early portraits of the then Androgynous Madonna as well as downtown performers John Sex, Bush Tetras and Michael Alago.

Titled 'Androgyny Cabaret' it played in numerous downtown NYC venues and was the subject of a two-hour documentary by the BBC which included a live guest appearance by members of the Clash.

American Image went on to do many important editions with Rivers in mediums ranging from massive screen prints to and this focus on a single artist became signatory to the studio.

The firm Morgan Art Foundation operating as an LLC out of PO boxes in Switzerland, the Bahamas and Panama among other known places filed a suite against American Image claiming it owned the trademarks and copyrights of Robert Indiana.

On August 21, 2019 the Supreme Court ruled that American Image would be the exclusive publishers, producers and dealers for Hope, which Michael McKenzie created in 2007.