It’s the end of a short-lived era: Polly is moving back to the U.S. and we will no longer have our monthly Sundays together. Of course I was shattered by her news and I begged, cajoled, pleaded, and cried hysterically for her to stay. I swore to throw myself off the Eiffel Tower if she left and even went so far as to say I would vote for that other candidate for president after she said the only thing that would make her stay is if the other candidate won. But none of my desperate tactics worked: Polly is a goner by Thanksgiving.
Monday night was our Sunday this month and a bittersweet one at that, since it was probably our last. Our friend, Rosemary Flannery invited us to the opening of the opening of The Seventies: Le Choc de la Photographie Americaine, an exhibit of black and white photos from the 1970s by celebrated American photographers at the Bibliotheque Nationale.
We had to wait on line for about 15 minutes and once inside the long, narrow exhibition rooms were packed to the gills, making it difficult to see the work. One of the first rooms had a series of Diane Arbus photos, iconic images that I love but had seen too many times before. I immediately thought, here we go again, another unimaginative, unchallenging photographic exhibit with the same 100 images we’ve seen a hundred times. But as I entered the next series of rooms I was surprised and thoroughly captivated by the arresting images, many by photographers whose work I was not familiar with and some new images I had never seen before by photographers I knew. In an ironic twist, the Diane Arbus photos turned out to be the most disappointing and predictable of the exhibition.
Les Krims
A series of Larry Clark’s best photos confirmed he is one of the great realist photographers of that period with his searing portraits of naked, raw youth. Striking meticulously lit portraits by Ralph Gibson shows you the soul of its subject. Photos of mundane landscapes like white painted lane dividers on a highway and tires against a wall become graphic works of art when taken by Burk Uzzle. My favorite photo, named Doug, Jackie, & Rollin, by Jeffrey K. Silverthorne, was a portrait of three transvestites with deadpan expressions on their faces saying don’t mess with us, taken in Providence Rhode Island in 1972. Nude tableaux by Les Krims were fascinating and amusing. Other photographers included Mary Ellen Mark, Garry Winograd, William Klein, Bill Owens, Lee Friedlander, Joel Peter Witkin, Robert Frank and Walker Evans.
The exhibition was well curated with a series of six small, intimate rooms with no more than five perfectly placed photos on each wall.
Jeffrey K. Silverthorne
Burk Uzzle
Reading room of Bibliotheque Nationale
Afterwards we had dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant, one of those fluorescent-lit places with no atmosphere but great food to make up for it. I had a steaming black kettle pot filled with beef sukiyaki, which was the perfect dish to warm my cold cockles. We chatted mostly about Polly’s move and her new life in the U.S., which will be so different than the one she had here. Polly invited me to visit anytime, so if I do, I promise we will write a new Sundays with Polly and Richard.
Like the song says, Sunday just will never be the same without Polly.
Click here to read what Polly had to say about our last adventure.
The Seventies: Le Choc de la Photographie Americaine
Bibliotheque Nationale
58 rue de Richelieu, 2nd arr.
Metro: Palais Royal
Tuesday to Saturday, 10AM to 7PM
Sunday 12PM to 7PM
Tel 01 53 79 59 59
http://www.bnf.fr/
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
Hi Richard, I wanted to leave this comment for Polly on her blog, but I was unable to without a Blogger account, so I’m posting it here and maybe she'll be able to read it.
Polly, let me tell you a true story that won’t change your situation, but it might give you a glimmer of hope. It was told to me by the person who it happened to.
There was an American woman who loved Paris and she was heartbroken that she had to leave. Her dream when she arrived in Paris was to stay forever, but her financial situation was slowly but surely dissolving that dream until the day when she realized that she could no longer stay. On the eve of her departure she was in mourning. (Okay, so I may sound a bit dramatic to many of you, but not to the people who have gone through a similar situation!)
A friend of hers told her, “Come with me this evening to a party I’ve been invited to. You’re not going to spend your last night in Paris sitting here crying!” With a little persuasion the woman decided to go with her friend.
At the party she met a Frenchman who fell in love with her at first sight! He asked her to have dinner with him the following evening. She told him, “I can’t, I’m returning to the States tomorrow.” After talking to him all evening, she confided in him and he asked her not to go. By the time she had to catch her plane, he had convinced her to stay as only a charming Frenchman can do! (Well there are other charming European men who are just as convincing, but for my story here, I’m sticking to the charming Frenchman!)
So, although this happened years ago, the American woman decided to stay. Sorry, but for privacy reasons, I can’t go into more detail, but I will say this, she still has a beautiful apartment in the 5e!
The moral of my story: Don’t give up hope, Polly, something could happen….even at the very last moment!
Posted by: Lynn | November 11, 2008 at 07:05 AM