Robert Longo's Janet (from Men in the Cities) is a limited edition archival pigment print presenting one of the defining images from his seminal Men in the Cities series. This photographic artwork captures a sharply dressed female figure suspended in a dramatic, contorted pose against an open sky, poised between composure and collapse. The image crystallizes a central tension in Longo's practice: the collision of control and chaos within the structures of modern urban life.

Deeply influenced by film noir and 1970s political thrillers, Robert Longo was drawn to the expressive potential of bodies caught in moments of extreme tension. Rather than depicting literal violence, he sought to register psychological rupture through gesture. The series began with carefully staged photographs of friends, including Kevin Noble and Cindy Sherman, reenacting poses inspired by cinematic stills. In New York, Longo refined this method by choreographing abrupt shifts of balance and reaction, directing models into destabilized positions that created the illusion of impact. These photographs later served as source material for his monumental charcoal drawings, yet they also stand independently as fully resolved artworks.

Photographed in 1981 and published in 2016 in a limited edition of 100 plus 20 artist's proofs, Janet (from Men in the Cities) is hand-signed, dated, and numbered by the artist, underscoring the lasting significance of Longo's photographically based artworks and prints within contemporary art.