953: Two Photographs

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2023

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s poem is Two Photographs by Theresa Lola.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Susan Sontag, writing about Robert Mapplethorpe, once wrote, “a [photograph] convey[s] a truth about the subject, a truth that would not be known were it not captured. . . All such claims, however contradictory, are claims of power over the subject.” The speaker in today’s poem remarks how photographs, be they selfies or those professionally rendered, capture our growth.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Major Jackson and this is The Slowdown.
0:20.3	December 2022.
0:22.9	I'm in the studio of my friend Aaron, a photographer.
0:27.7	My current author photo is a decade plus outdated.
0:31.8	I need a set of images to promote my new book and The Slowdown.
0:37.2	Aaron has taken my picture before, cross-armed in a tan jacket, the one I've used a million
0:43.6	times.
0:45.8	Photographs are aspirational.
0:48.1	I'm burying into the task at hand to shield my anxiety.
0:53.7	Aaron and I have known each other since our college and club hopping days.
0:58.8	She's watched me physically evolve over the years.
1:02.7	My grays are coming in like a cloud formation.
1:08.1	Aaron pulls the camera from her face and encourages me to smile.
1:13.0	My biggest asset, she says, which I intentionally suppress.
1:18.6	Her assistant adjusts the light pole.
1:22.6	I'm here because I want to be seen differently.
1:26.0	I want the gravitas of a serious writer, erudite, warm, authoritative.
1:33.7	Think James Baldwin and his cigarette.
1:37.3	Her camera is an ongoing baptism of renewal.
1:41.6	Her camera doesn't feel predatory nor voyeuristic, more sculptural.
1:48.5	I feel her shaping me to a vision that I can grow into.
1:53.1	She coaxes me into positions and I sit still.
	...

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