(via dopaminedream)
Rineke Dijkstra, ‘Villa Franca, Portugal, May 8’, 1994
(i was assigned to go to the MOMA and write about one of Dijikstra’s works)
I entered Dijkstra’s exhibit familiar with her series of the young teens in swimsuits; (go lurk on it tumblr) a painful and beautiful series showing the between stages of young adults .I walked into the next room which contained photos of bullfighters right after they had left the ring covered in blood and exhausted. One in particular, the man in the red coat got to me. I wonder how the other patrons feel seeing me cry in front of them. I don’t care.
This matador looks at me and only me. Small rips in his red coat, his tie slightly askew, his brown eyes slightly too big for his face gaze back at me…into me and i feel his pain seeping into me and making me become heavier and heavier. Patrons pass before me and I go out of my way to recapture his eyes. The men around him in their portraits, with so much more blood on their faces do not capture me as this one man does.
So here i am falling in love with a photograph…a man i’ll never know. I’m falling for the details of him; The stray freckles on his face, the way his eyebrows make his eyes feel even heavier and the fact that now, i do not want to leave him. i wish i could sit and have us look at eachother forever…but my pencil is dull and my eyes are bleary. I will walk away with the weight of his sadness nearly crushing me. the other patrons pass him casually, they feel nothing.
Aliya
Alan
SAN FRANCISCO
I want high ceilings, wood floors, and Aliya on my low back couch
