Useful Stuff?

It was the end of 2013 and as I was walking throughout NY. Kate followed me.

Her playboy eyes, ears and tail seemed to be with me everywhere, so I ducked into The Strand to find some literary escape. Yet, there she was, staring at me from the covers and pages of fashion books. So I slowed down, observed, shot and submitted.

 

Was she stalking me, or I her?

It was the holidays and all of this kate-ness got me thinking (you know, time of reflection and all that) about an article I read a few months ago titled A Critic's Manifesto, that Daniel Mendehlson posted on The New Yorker blog. In it he stated: "The serious critic ultimately loves his subject more than he loves his reader".

Dear reader, please don't take this personally, but even though I do love you, it has dawned on me that it is not as much as the idea of kate - given the amount of time I am spending with, and on, her.

Kate is not my subject, so let's be clear ... she is the icon, the metaphor for everything that I find wrong. She is the idol, the drug, the image, the repetition, the look, the (so-called) perfection, the aspiration. She is the desire and she is nothing more than a passing fad that doesn't seem to pass.

Like a bad smell, the image lingers. And I am in love with the idea that it is ever present, that it is inescapable.
So, Happy New Year. Let's go shoot kate.