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A reminder of a former potential life as I headed over to the Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection. Stephen Daiter Gallery with Doro at the collection were having a talk on photography books – not artist books per se although Doro pulled quite a few – but those books that one grew up with and where photographs are usually encountered first. The Americans,The Decisive Moment,Diane Arbus,etc

I was grateful that they had thought of me and sent an invite. I wasn’t shocked that there was only one other person from the W.G.A.S – figure it out – but many from that college in the South Loop knowing how the department feels about the idea of craft.

It was nice to be among people who were passionate about something that bordered on geekdom. It was interesting for me as it sort of closed a circle of my British life as one of the names in British photography that I hadn’t met but was a friend of a friend was there – Gerry Badger.

I had seen his in Creative Camera – still miss the magazine, even more so than (Swiss) Camera – had a few of his writings through the years even his early photographic work when there was British photography and European photography. Mentioned that I used to run around with John Benton-Harris who co-authored a book on American Photography.

I had forgot what I had known and how like here I was on the periphery of photography there. How I had met people who are now famous early in their careers. We talked about the days when British photography was evolving from its Picture Post past. The people then and how things have changed now that Britain has become part of Europe. Interesting observations made which in my cloistered life seemed to hold true. The hint that North American photography is over as people on this side of the Atlantic are too busy making work about the medium itself without bothering to say anything about the world around them.

It was conjectured that European photography is more interesting at the moment as Europe is coming to terms with what it is becoming – no Eastern Block, the attempt to unify the continent, working out a balance between federalism and a centralised state. Photographers investigating the meaning of the New Europe – whereas here we are investigating some photographic trope.

Sometimes I find it consoling to be among others who have a love of artefact, where the underlying theme isn’t “whatever”.