Corps

Last week I received a very friendly mail from Pascal Tarraire, a French photographer who had come across the Capitals book at a Barcelona bookstore. He proposed to do a book swap: my “27 European Capitals” against his “Corps Partagées”.

I readily agreed. Leafing through his “Corps” I thought Pascal was the better photographer of us. His approach is edgier, darker, more adventurous, more in-your-face than mine. The subtext is threat, loss, abandon. Many pictures could be stills from a thriller movie. But there is something tongue-in-cheek too. Every image has a title that, for once, is very aptly chosen and puts a surrealist spin on it. Similarly with the book’s title which is a play of words (in French) on “to be with a body”, “to be separated from it” and “to be cut by the photo’s frame.” Altogether “Corps Partagés” reflects a Dostoyevskian spirit that I would like to capture but am unable to in my work.