From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 09/27/02-06:13:27 PM Z
A passage in today's review by Michael Kimmelman of the Avedon show at the
Metropolitan had echoes of last week's discussion of "photography" ...
plus a nice anecdote:
"[T]he Duke and Duchess of Windsor...look ravaged and sad. Mr. Avedon said
that when he started to photograph them, they put on their royal faces,
beaming and cooing. He was desperate. So he told them a lie, He said his
taxi had just run over a dog. Their faces fell. 'Because they loved dogs
-- a lot more than they loved Jews,' Mr. Avedon added.
"What do we see, then? Is it a revelation of their true character or
ordinary fleeting sympathy about a dead pet? Both or neither. We read
into this photograph what we want as we do into all portraits, painted,
sculptured or snapped by a camera.... [A]rt doesn't have an obligation to
be fair or true, just good."
JS.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 10/01/02-03:47:10 PM Z CST