Cervantes is Among Us
Duke gardens, Durham, October 2005.
20” wide print, #11. Quarter sawed Chatham County oak frame by artist: $6,000.
Unframed Print: $1,400.
This was shot at Duke Gardens, weirdly enough, and is totally genuine. Some say it is a self portrait. There are several possible readings of this photograph, the main, most popular one hides the most important one. This photograph is not really about sex, but as Gopnik implies in his article, dressing up a symbolic scene into something possibly evoking sex, is a good way to attract attention, notably in a puritanical society. I can’t resist quoting what he writes as well: “... I think the French view of sex and life is essentially right and ought to be universally applicable: Sex with children or by force is wrong, and the rest is just the human comedy, unfolding, as it will. Puritanism is a sin against human nature ...”
This is part of my series “La Nature Humaine,” which is in tribute to my mentor Denis Brihat, who is the current spiritual heir to Edward Weston. It might not be impossible therefore to find some lineage with Weston in these photographs. See blog post.
Unframed prints available in various sizes, as well as this piece framed