Category: Flotsam

In Rome, In California

Hey, Les.

Long time no scribble. Pardonnez moi, svp. Many changes in my life over the past few months.

I’ve found a new cave. It’s near the water, not too high up, high ceilings (can you say “cathedral”?). Northern exposure, and in a bit of a valley, so there’s not too much direct sun. But that’s jake with me.

I was reading Paul Auster again. I know, I know. But the title—Man in the Dark—spoke to me. I won’t labor the narrative details, but it’s about a man divided between two worlds, two ways of life. One was prompted by recollections of violence, a race riot, about which the narrator says the following:

That was my war. Not a real war, perhaps, but once you witness violence on that scale, it isn’t difficult to imagine something worse, and once your mind is capable of doing that, you understand that the worst possibilities of the imagination are the country you live in. Just think if, and chances are it will happen.

The country we live in is comprised of the worst possibilities of our imagination. Now, that’s a thought to either keep us hunkered down in our dark spaces, or make us confront the darkness to dispel it while denying the abyss, the Mariana Trench of our imaginations. Which way do we go?

Yrs,

OG (forgot how to sign my name, it’s been so long)

The extraordinary Carrie Elizabeth Thompson has an exhibition up at the XY and Z gallery in Minneapolis.

There will be a reception for Carrie on July 8th from 6-9pm. The gallery will also be open regular hours (M 11-7/ F&Sa 1-9/ Sunday 12-5) until August 2nd.  Stop by and check out the show.

Also check out this interview with Carrie and the other 2009 McKnight Fellows here.

Following up on yesterday’s (weirdly controversial) post, here are some examples of book covers that I’ve agree to:

If this topic is of interest to you, be sure to check out Covering Photography.

Ten years ago I made this picture:

In 2006, a publisher (Little, Brown and Company) asked if they could purchase the rights (and Photoshop a child in the snow). This was their proposal:

I said no. Three years later, I stumbled across this book at Barnes and Noble:

Now I hear that Winter’s Bone became a movie and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

I can’t wait to see the poster.

I saw some photo collages by Anselm Kiefer at Gagosian yesterday. They reminded me a bit of Lester B. Morrison’s Lost Boy Mountain.

Hey, Les.

That Roman cave reminds me of my dreams, which of late have teemed with illicit and debased liaisons. I’m drawn to those eroded human figures on the columns, caryatid and telamon, degraded shadows of their full-bodied selves. Barely capable of breath, let alone any other engagement. Doomed to become less and less, Les.

Cheerily yrs,

In the fantastic new photographic quarterly, Fantom, Alec Soth interviews Lester B. Morrison.

Buy yours here