The Friends of Brando Society

"The Friends of Brando Society" met yesterday afternoon at one of the local saloons.  It was a sendoff, of sorts, but there is to be another, or so I have heard.  It was a reportedly small turnout.  Bigger things are in the offing.  I didn't go.  I'm not superstitious, but they say not to speak ill of the dead, don't go whistling in graveyards, etc.  I was tempted here, but I will not.  Perhaps I'll tell stories at a later date.

I finished reading the Arbus biography.  The book will change the way we view the photography, I think.  She lived at the end of an era.  People knew one another.  The creative world was smaller.  It is astonishing to read about.  Now that everyone is famous. . . .

I came to an awareness of the photography of August Sander from reading the bio.  I knew some of his photographs, but I had not looked at them extensively.  How could I have overlooked them?  His work is strange and wonderful at times.  This portrait of a man and his sons is thrilling.  I will learn more about it.

  I want to photograph, but the weather is brutal now.  I spend my days off lying naked, napping.  There is no walking about with cameras.  The land is flat, the people dead.  There is nothing but the palpable and invisible heat.