Vitro Nasu

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Photos by Fung Lin Hall

Happy father’s day!

Sketch by Djuna Barnes

Djuna Barnes (American, 1892–1982), Sketch of a woman with hat, looking right, for “The Terrorists,” New York Morning Telegraph Sunday Magazine, September 30, 1917. Ink on paper, 12 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. (32.4 x 21.6 cm). Djuna Barnes Papers, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries (via)

Force feeding Djuna Barnes clipping

Photo below “Differential Action” by Thomas Eakins

L’immoralist
Louis Jourdan and James Dean

Photo collage by Fung Lin Hall

Bruce Chatwin Edinburgh flat
Bruce was born on May 13, 1940

Susan Sontag wrote of him: “There are few people in this world who have the kind of looks which enchant and enthrall … It isn’t just beauty, it’s a glow, something in the eyes. And it works on both sexes.”

Part II Werner Herzog and Bruce told stories to each other .(Werner talks about Bruce).

Werner Herzog said Chatwin was a great story teller..
German filmmaker Werner Herzog relates a story about meeting Chatwin in Australia while Herzog was working on his 1984 film, Where the Green Ants Dream. Finding out that Chatwin was in Australia researching a book (The Songlines), Herzog sought him out. Herzog states that Chatwin professed his admiration for him, and when they met was carrying one of Herzog’s books, On Walking In Ice. The two hit it off immediately, united by a shared love of adventure and telling tall tales. Herzog states that he and Chatwin talked almost nonstop over two days, telling each other stories. He said that Chatwin “told about three times as many as me.”[24] Herzog also claims that when Chatwin was near death, he gave Herzog his leather rucksack and said,”You’re the one who has to wear it now, you’re the one who’s walking.”

In 1987, Herzog made Cobra Verde, a film based on Chatwin’s 1980 novel The Viceroy of Ouidah, depicting the life of Francisco Manoel da Silva, a fictional Brazilian slave trader working in West Africa. Locations for the film included Brazil, Colombia and Ghana. via his wiki..

Cobra Verde was based on Bruce Chatwin’s novel The Viceroy of Ouidah.

The Essential Truthiness of Bruce Chatwin and Werner Herzog

His Notebook..narrated by his wife (youtube)

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INDIA. Bruce CHATWIN interviewing in Delhi for the Sunday Times. 1977
On the Road with Mrs G. (A witty and charming article on Indira Gandhi by Bruce Chatwin- they talked about Joan of Arc & Margaret Thatcher- describing a leader out of touch.)

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Not a travel writer but a traveling writer, he was a biblioperipatetic. He read, that is, as he walked — large swatches of Western literature and thought were lavished on the places and people he visited — and he walked as he read.

In Patagonia

The quest writing was dazzling at the time (I reviewed some of it, and was dazzled). Visiting the aged Nadezhda Mandelstam, he sorts out body and soul. She lies curled up in bed, shabby and unkempt, welcoming a gift of marmalade, sniffing at a bottle of less than premium Champagne and getting Chatwin to straighten a painting she’d knocked awry by hurling an unsatisfactory book at it. It was modernist white-on-white: ”Perhaps that is all one can do today in Russia?” she muses.(via There’s No Place That’s Home)

Bruce Chatwin Photo by James Ivory

In the summer of 1972, before starting to work as an adviser on art at the Sunday Times, Chatwin went to Oregon (USA) trying to finish his nomad book. He stayed in a cabin, owned by the film director James Ivory, in the Lake of the Woods (Klamath County).
Chatwin met Ivory in England in 1969, at the house of the painter Howard Hodgkin near Bath.
Here is a Chatwin’s picture taken by Ivory in the Oregon desert (1972): (via Facebook)

What Am I Doing Here?
In this text, Bruce Chatwin writes of his father, of his friend Howard Hodgkin, and of his talks with Andre Malraux and Nadezhda Mandelstram. He also follows unholy grails on his travels, such as the rumour of a “wolf-boy” in India, or the idea of looking for a Yeti.

Chatwin Travel writing

Chatwin was one of the first prominent men in Britain known to have contracted HIV and died of AIDS, although he hid the facts of his illness.

Aids Memorial - previous post – Photos of Eleven Good Men

Alice Liddell ( 4 May 1852 – 16 November 1934), known for most of her adult life by her married name, Alice Hargreaves, inspired the children’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Jane Jacobs
(Digital image by Fung Lin Hall)

Jane Jacob – May 4 1916

Jane Jacob was an American–Canadian journalist, author, and activist best known for her influence on urban studies. Her influential book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that urban renewal did not respect the needs of most city-dwellers.

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Mel, Audrey and Truman Capote

Aurdrey Hepburn was born on May 4 1929 – she was discovered by Colette (see biography on youtube here)

Audrey speaks many languages (youtube)

Earliest known photo of the boston marathon - 1904

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Dan Chelotti’s Haiku a day..

Some samples..

TUESDAY, APRIL 2.

Pushkin in a dream:
Air conditioner repair?
You do not need this
- – -
MONDAY, APRIL 1.

Standing in Boston
Smoking outside the bookfair
I long for Boston

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(photos by Fung Lin Hall)

Adam Gopnik – Lost and Found (New Yorker)

Agnes Varda photography – China

In 1957, the People’s Republic of China was not yet recognized by the United Nations, and was closed to most foreigners.

As beautiful as little cats.

I felt very honored to be part of the French group invited to bring their experiences from different backgrounds to the young People’s Republic. I was determined to do the best job possible as a photographer. There was so much to discover—everything.

Photo by Agnes Varda

Cantonese Opera in pictures (guardian)
(See 14 photos)

Peking Opera Blues directed by Tsui Hark – Full film.. (you can watch on youtube..)

Peking Opera Blues

The movie combines comedy, Hong Kong action, and serious drama with scenes involving Peking Opera. Director Tsui Hark described the film as a satire on the “Chinese ignorance of democracy.” [1] The film was nominated for six awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards including Best Actress.

Opening of “Once Upon time in China” (directed by Tsui Hark)
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Tsui Hark Hong Kong filmmaker/producer. was born on Feb 15.
Born in Vietnam, moved to Hong Kong at the age of fourteen. Studied film at the University of Texas at Austin.

MoMa Collection
Title: Christian with Keloidal Scars

Japanese Photography Legend Shomei Tomatsu has died.

Shomei Tomatsu, one of the most influential Japanese photographers of his era, died on 14 December. He was 82

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Shinjuku – Turmoil Butoh dancer Hijikata Tatsumi carrying the tree.

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Shomei Tomatsu, Brookman noted, “transformed the notion of documentary photography from more formal concerns…into a much more emotional image-making…He didn’t simply settle into one style.”
The latter, combined with Tomatsu’s reluctance to travel abroad, may help explain his relative obscurity in the west.”

Fujimoto Deliberate tourist, a thrill-seeking photog, dodges Aleppo snipers (Japan times)

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Painting from watch tower at Grand Canyon

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Digital Collage and photo from downtown Phoenix

view from car

Hermit’s Rest
South Rim Grand Canyon

Photos and digital collage by Fung Lin Hall

Philip Whalen, Sensei, in his peaceful chair, my apartment living room,
East 12th Street New York March 1984. he was visiting East coast to give
readings N.Y. and Buffalo, calm poet. ‘What are you reading?’ ‘I’m
not reading I’m just turning the pages.’ (Ginsberg caption.)
photo c. Allen Ginsberg Estate]

The Invention of the Letter: A Beastly Morality by Philip Whalen

Invention of of the Letter #16 (sample drawing).

And God descended to Adam’s side and abstracted Eve therefrom, telling her ‘Never let him sleep,
in the afternoon. Make him keep drawing and writing.”

(photo via)

Happy birthday J.S.

Steve Nash & Julian Schnabel (previous post)

Navigation Drawing – J. S.

Two friends at home by Diane Arbus – 1965 (photo via)

Revealed and discovered - Diane Arbus (previous post)

R.I.P George McGovern
photo via

Democracy Now on George McGovern’s new film..

Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail

Russell Means by Andy Warhol
(image via)

Russell Means – American Indian Activist dies at 72 (NYtimes)

Russell Means comment on Obama peace prize (youtube)

See Russell Means with Daniel Day Lewis

Robert Capa
Birthday: October 22, 1913

War & Ingrid Bergman (previous post on Robert Capa )

(via)

Malcolm Browne’s decision not to intervene and prevent Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation haunted him for many years. He felt that in those seconds he could have saved the monk’s life but he chose to take photographs instead.
Perhaps by doing so and helping to show the world what was happening in Vietnam Malcolm Browne, in his small way, hastened the end of the war thereby saving many other lives at the cost of Thich Quang Duc’s.
Of course, Thich Quang Duc must be given far more credit for changing the world’s perception of the Vietnam War, after all, his was the ultimate sacrifice.
It is said that the only part of Thich Quang Duc’s body that wasn’t burnt was his heart, even after his body was subjected to ritual cremation, and it is kept at the Reserve Bank of Vietnam as a holy relic.(via)

Malcolm Browne (wiki)

Burning Monk Photographer Malcolm Browne Dies + BBC in pictures

Browne chats with David Halberstam of the New York Times (left) (Read more: here.)