A trillion greetings – in this list of non-news

“Le Bestouan” Cassis B. du R.

October 15th, 1985

deer Francis,

I DO believe in SYMBIOSIS and I think often of your words concerning the dead eles * -> in some way I hope they offered a chance for you to express things which would never otherwise never get put down. (No? please excuse awkwardness etc)

At the moment I am thinking [worrying] about the P.B. Paris M.O.M.A show NOVEM. 1986 and an HOUR version of the 40 MINUTES thrown-together ARLES show. You mentioned to John Pringle that you could possibly help me in this {now there are several urgent causes.

Maybe it would be a good time to say something about the currently confused and abzurdly hyped and over-commercialized subject of PHOTOGRAPHY. I am not in a position to say anything but the show lends itself to a lot of ideas I believe in – How about a casual F.B. conversation – OR CAREFULLY READ statement containing your thoughts on this ever-more misinterpreted evermore ridiculous MISUED & ABUSED hobby? -> its values & its limitations … BRIEF & DEADLY …

I love all the ideas we talked about:

“SWIMMING THROUGH A SEA OF IMAGES” —- ephemerality and speed and simple documentation —- diary keeping – KEEPING RECORDS… particularly these last decades which have seen us forever break-the-back-of-NATURE

Some past ideas you have given me:

1. the way time works in photographs
2. the possible future of art lying in POLICE RECORDS + DIARIES ETC
3. the importance of USING photography – as in a DICTIONARY OF IMAGES, at ones service

and the embarrassment of considering these collected images as sufficient, on their own, as “art” (whatever it is it isn’t a photo) … the modern gallery-world EXPEDIENCY… SPEEDY-SALES / openings + opportunities that mislead creative accomplishment of the future _____

1. The 1984 $20,000,000 xx/100 sale of 3 photo collections to GETTY! … ($80,000,000 left to spend in 2 1/2 years!)

I’ve been collecting A LOT of stones here … worn down by the eons of Mediterranean waves – it seems a bit like COLLECTING (grabbing) photos – VERY PLEASING, sometimes MAGIC, fun to collect… ANYWAY Hope this catalyses some ideas

F.B. P.S.

Here in Cassis the “CAMARGO” foundation set up by my cousin (Jerome Hill) [where I used to stay ’63-’64’-’65-’67-’68] unearthed a whole pile of drawings and photos of mine – 20 years unseen!

—————–

Among them was an ink drawing of my room at YALE university 1958-1959 (r.1772 Yale station) with a PB rendition of a painting I did of you in 1957 which you have never seen but which hung on my wall there for 4 years … amazingly enough, even the ink drawing looks exactly like you (AS DID THE PORTRAIT) -> burned in mill AND the photos we did on the roof at Narrow Str. in 1972-3 — I will bring it to London [you can have it if you want it]

Sorry about the non-letter …

I got OUT of the habit of communications … LOTS of DIARY CATCH-UP & some INDIA INK EPICS

How do you like the title: “VIEW FROM A DEAD-MAN’S WALLET”?