how to make conversation with a genius

photographing edward albee; reportedly reclusive playwright who is so well known as to be feared....i have never been so nervous in my life. though the truth is he is a lovely caring man who gave me the gift of some of his time, in his space filled with marvelous art. 

like a teenager on a first date,
i brought him flowers and showered him with chattered compliments and references.

narcissism.2

the son-king, 2010 

first born/my brother, to parents who were both “only” children, so: first son = first grandson = prince of the city and then some. 

getting the best of everyone’s attention.

he could read the newspaper in kindergarten, skipped first grade and later eighth, graduated from high school at 16.  a boy scout always and forever. he can tell you which leaf goes with what tree, and will.

narcissism

The Narcissism Series

I've started making boxes again. 

According to Greek mythology, Narcissus was a youth who in his indifference to the nymph Echo was doomed to pine away for love of his own image, until he finally changed into a flower.

"moi"

(italian paper, mirror, glove.)                                                                                    

post # 5: teaching ; teachers

teaching photography - light, camera, image.

keeping my sight clear, my mind focused, my heart open.

revealing the information. cherishing the give & take of ideas & energy.

i began teaching photography, in texas in 1978. i was younger than some of my students then; now i am older than most of their parents. i thought i knew everything then; now i know i don't know. what has remained the same is my love and enthusiasm for the process, its history and its magic. and my students.

i learned to teach through examples bad and good: one professor who played manipulative head games, another who took care to be kind and helpful and generous. i learned more from the former but prefer the methods of the latter.

i heard just recently that karma has finally caught up with my "bad" professor- he left in the middle of a semester, without a word. it is said he got caught in an evilly perverted e-mail exchange with a female grad student.

not that it makes up for the egos & careers he shattered along his way, but some justice: the thought of tenured wood, finally burning.

forsythia, a week later.

turning green at the edges.

time flies whether or not we have fun.

post # 3: april 3

today the forsythia are screaming yellow and i can see spring finally showing up in the woods.

after ten years here, every tree feels like a child.

post #2. MoMA Report

William Kentridge: Five Themes

Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present

Blockbuster shows, loud, crowded, dense. Awe-inspiring.

Kentridge a genius of ideas and technique with more than a twinge of humor, his moving pictures are that and more. Especially loved the drawings on book pages. And his homage to magic.

Abramovic’s retrospective and current performance Super Sadly Scarily Serious, the only humor the audience reaction to her Body of Work, (pun intended). The one-page stories next to her Biography explained much of her psychological extremism; what I wondered about was the psyches of her Re-enactors.

I did not participate in her performance except as an Observer. Not enough patience to wait in line & be videotaped in the process. Maybe I’ll go again first thing on a midweek morning, and wear my lipstick.

post #1

hoping this will be a place to post some photographs (old & new), and some musings: some wisdom & some folly.

first photos here: black & white with a bit of color. about the here & now, the now & again, the visible & the invisible. the world in a grain of sand: a snowflake; a flower. beauty everywhere, just look & see.