English followed by une version en français y una versión en español. For Credits and links, see below. For more regarding the photographs, click for the page The photos?

Images, new and old

One of my sisters recently remarked that if my photos seemed good to me, that was good, but . . . She did not care for them.

As it is well said of aging, so might we say of families: they’re not for wimps? (Though Montaighbakhtinian visitors are free to share my sister’s opinion.)

In any case, I do like my photos (there’s a surprise), and particularly when I need do little more than crop them. That is, I like it when the “being” is right there on the sidewalk, in the photo, and all she or he asks of me is recognition. (No need to call attention to his or her existence by darkening an eye or the outline of the figure.)

While I’m writing these few words and showing a few recent photos of sidewalk personalities, I note that I have also been going back over Montaigbakhtinian posts from the previous decade and trying to fix some of the glitches that have popped up. (Missing images, typography changed by WordPress software changes.)

One of the pleasures of this rather massive undertaking has been to come across posts that are accompanied by rich sets of images found online. I’m sharing some of them here and including links to others.

With best wishes to all for the school year now underway.

Français

Images, anciennes et récentes

L’une de mes sœurs m’a récemment écrit que si je trouvais mes photos réussies, tant mieux, mais… Elle, elle ne les aimait pas.

Comme on le dit si bien à propos du vieillissement, pourrait-on en dire autant des familles : elles ne sont pas pour les mauviettes ? (Cela dit, les visiteurs de Montaighbakhtin sont libres de partager l’avis de ma sœur.)

Quoi qu’il en soit, je les aime bien, mes photos (quelle surprise !), et particulièrement quand je n’ai guère plus à faire que de les recadrer. Autrement dit, j’aime quand l’« être » se trouve juste là, sur le trottoir, dans la photo, et que tout ce qu’il ou elle me demande, est de le-la reconnaître. (Pas besoin d’attirer l’attention sur son existence en assombrissant ses yeux ou le contour de sa silhouette.)

Alors que j’écris ces quelques mots et que je montre quelques photos récentes de personnages de trottoir, je note par ailleurs que je suis en train de revoir les publications de Montaigbakhtinian de la décennie précédente, essayant de corriger certains des bugs qui sont apparus. (Images manquantes, mise en page modifiée par les mises à jour du logiciel WordPress.)

L’un des plaisirs de cette entreprise plutôt colossale a été de tomber sur des articles accompagnés de riches séries d’images trouvées en ligne. J’en partage quelques-unes ici et j’ajoute des liens vers d’autres.

Mes meilleurs vœux à tous pour l’année scolaire qui vient de commencer.

Español

Imágenes, nuevas y antiguas

Una de mis hermanas comentó hace poco que, si a mí me parecían buenas mis fotos, eso estaba bien, pero… A ella no le gustaban.

Como bien se dice del envejecimiento, podríamos decir lo mismo de las familias: ¿no son para cobardes? (Aunque los visitantes de Montaighbakhtinian son libres de compartir la opinión de mi hermana.)

En cualquier caso, a mí sí me gustan mis fotos (¡qué sorpresa!), y sobre todo cuando apenas tengo que recortarlas. Es decir, me gusta cuando el «ser» está ahí mismo, en la acera, en la foto, y lo único que me pide es que lo reconozca. (No hace falta llamar la atención sobre su existencia oscureciendo los ojos o el contorno de la figura).

Mientras escribo estas pocas palabras y muestro algunas fotos recientes de personajes de la acera, me doy cuenta, por otra parte, de que estoy revisando las publicaciones de Montaigbakhtinian de la década anterior, intentando corregir algunos de los errores que han surgido. (Imágenes que faltan, maquetación modificada por las actualizaciones del software de WordPress.)

Uno de los placeres de esta empresa bastante colosal ha sido toparme con publicaciónes acompañados de ricas series de imágenes encontradas en Internet. Comparto algunas de ellas aquí y incluyo enlaces a otras.
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Los mejores deseos a todos en el año lectivo que acaba de comenzar.

William Eaton

Credits and links

The photograph of the young woman with the gun in her mouth comes from was found on a Web post: These guns can’t kill you – they are ice cream, by one Marko, 23 August 2010. From the text:

At first glance it looks like they’re putting real guns in their mouths, but in real life they are eating edible ice guns.

• The post: NRALGBTQ

The photograph of the child at right was taken by Nick Hedges for Shelter, a housing and homelessness charity in Scotland. In 1968, Shelter hired Nick Hedges to document the living conditions being experienced in poor-quality housing in the United Kingdom. For more, see Nick Hedges’ photographs for Shelter 1969-72. One of Hedges’s comments: “The thing about people living in slum housing is that there is no drama. . . . It’s about the absolute wearing down of people’s morale in a quiet and undemonstrative way.”

• The post: Class Warfare Poverty Death

The sculpture at right is by Jiménez Deredia.

• The post, with more images from Deredia’s superb, 2019 outdoor exhibition in San José, Costa Rica: Poemas de Costa Rica

The masks were from Philip Greenberg’s photographs of sculptures by James “Son Ford” Thomas, which sculptures were on view in 2015 at New York University’s 80WSE Gallery. Greenberg’s photographs appeared in Roberta Smith’s review of the show for the New York Times: Art Carved From Inequality, July 9, 2015.

• The post: Dedicated, well-armed sociopaths who’ll stop at nothing

The illustration on a purple background is by Richard Delgado and was for a staged reading of my philosophical dialogue The Professor of Ignorance Condemns the Airplane. The performance was at  Dixon Place on 25 October 2014.

With the blue-green-faced portrait of the woman I am cheating a little. This is an excellent New York model, Erica, with whom I often worked. (And I often thought she had the face of an American President.) I came across the portrait while I was packing for a move. It has not previously appeared on Montaigbakhtinian, though other drawings of Erica have. To wit this drawing at right which, in 2023, helped decorate the matter-of-fact poem They too . . . ¡Ellos también! . . . Eux aussi!