Friday, August 13, 2010

I do not wish to be taken with you



I wish you to stay.





Scan of correspondence in crayon on paper by Laurent;
Photographic suite by Hedi Slimane, revised,
excerpts of Diary entry for July 29, 2010.

3 comments:

  1. I am touched by the reverence of the images and reminded of my own tender losses at an early age by this heartfelt request. At such a young age there is little motive to question other than love. It seems with loss-we begin to travel with vivid memories. As we age it is known as baggage-I think maybe reexamining the contents and looking back as you have here is good for the soul. pgt

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  2. Yes, LA, any credit for this open theft is entirely due to a very strong suite of images, on a much more complex set of relationships than the one to which it so readily adapts. I decided to ‘craft’ the simplification introduced here, really as an homage to very gorgeous work at Slimane’s diary, in which (one hopes) the crayon interjection reinforces the vitality of memory. The plinth of this posting in the preceding one, speaks for itself (or not), thus the concentration shown here.

    A similarly powerful investigation of youth, juxtaposed with Berlin’s ambivalent architectural heritage, preceded this pastoral, and he has done the same with the American flag in remembrance. I have not seen anyone capture the potential price of Mies van der Rohe’s vigorous clarity in his Art Gallery, until this Berlin suite. I will likely visit that concept later. For now, the spiritual debt of incurring understanding is the pleasure to be celebrated.

    I am not a believer in the concept of baggage, except at waistlines. I do prefer the more constructive and candid term, provenance. The difference is important - hence, I’m guessing, your struggle with the expression.

    I appreciate the invigoration of your appraisal of this posting. With a single keystroke in the sidebar, I hope any reader will investigate the Diary of Hedi Slimane.

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  3. I went to the Slimane site immediately and of course agree with you. To express in the context of a photograph, a picture is worth a thousand words comes to mind (another generalization like baggage) is a gift to be able to capture that which words can not express. It isn't the expression I struggle with here- it is the contents. Yes, I guess baggage is a real drag, while Provenance allows for improving with the passage of time and that is always best when we evaluate loss.

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