A Writer's Moment: Chronicling his times in words and images

A Writer's Moment: Chronicling his times in words and images:   “With a photograph, you are left with the same modes of interpretation as you are with a book. You ask: 'What do we know about the aut...

Chronicling his times in words and images

 

“With a photograph, you are left with the same modes of interpretation as you are with a book. You ask: 'What do we know about the author and their background? What do I know about the subject?'” – Joel Sternfeld

 

Born in Brooklyn, NY on this date in 1944, Sternfeld is noted for his large-format documentary pictures and for helping establish color photography as a respected artistic medium.  With many works in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Getty Center in Los Angeles, he has influenced generations of photographers.

 

His essays and writings alongside his photos also have made him an important chronicler of his life and times.  American Prospects, perhaps Sternfeld's most known book, explores the complexity and irony of human-altered landscapes in the United States, often leading to devastating results.  His book On This Site: Landscape in Memoriam depicts sites where tragedies occurred, supplemented by his thoughtful text about the events that happened there.

A longtime professor of photography at New York’s Sarah Lawrence University, his books of photos and essays on photography are part of the photographic teaching lexicon at colleges and universities worldwide.  His most recent book is 2024’s Our Loss reflecting on the climate crisis and nature’s resilience in the face of environmental harm.

 

“A photographer,” he said, “must choose a palette just as painters choose theirs.”   

A Writer's Moment: Taming those 'unruly' novels

A Writer's Moment: Taming those 'unruly' novels:   “I noticed, when I taught elementary school, how true the squeaky wheel thing is, and how endearing squeaky wheels can be! Because when yo...

Taming those 'unruly' novels

 

“I noticed, when I taught elementary school, how true the squeaky wheel thing is, and how endearing squeaky wheels can be! Because when you're being a squeaky wheel, you're also really letting people know who you are.” – Aimee Bender

 

Born in California on June 28, 1969 Bender is known for her surreal stories and characters.   She’s authored 6 books, led by her first collection of short stories The Girl in the Flammable Skirt.  Her numerous short stories have been published in magazines and journals ranging from Harper's, McSweeney's and The Paris to inclusion in a number of anthologies, and her story Faces was a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award finalist for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense.  

 

Also the winner of two Pushcart Prizes for her writing, her novels include The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and her most recent, The Butterfly Lampshade. 

 

“Novels are so much unrulier and more stressful to write,” she said in comparing her writings of short stories .  “A short story can last two pages and then it's over, and that's kind of a relief. I really like balancing the two.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's how we become participants'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's how we become participants':   “We participate in the creation of the world by de-creating ourselves.”  – Anne Carson   Carson, born in Canada on June 21, 1950 is a ...

'It's how we become participants'

 

“We participate in the creation of the world by de-creating ourselves.” – Anne Carson

 

Carson, born in Canada on June 21, 1950 is a poet, essayist, translator, and teacher at universities in both the U.S. and Canada.   She also is the winner of three of the most distinguished and richest writing awards – the Guggenheim, the MacArthur, and the Lannan.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Carson’s,

 

     Short Talk on Chromo-Luminarism

                         Sunlight slows down Europeans. Look at all those
                        spellbound people in Seurat. Look at Monsieur,
                         sitting deeply. Where does a European go when he
                         is ‘lost in thought'? Seurat has painted that
                        place—the old dazzler! It lies on the other
                        side of attention, a long lazy boatride from here.
                        It is A Sunday rather than A Saturday afternoon
                        there. Seurat has made this clear by a special
                        method. "Ma méthode," he called it, rather testily,
                        when we asked him. He caught us hurrying through
                        the chill green shadows like adulterers. The
                        river was opening and closing its stone lips.
                        The river was pressing Seurat to its lips.

A Writer's Moment: 'You have to search yesterday'

A Writer's Moment: 'You have to search yesterday':   “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”  – Pearl Buck   Born in the backwoods of West Virginia on this date i...