Friday: Wizening

Having thoroughly enjoyed Patti Smith's 'M Train' recently, I finished 'Just Kids' today, a book about her time in New York with Robert Mapplethorpe.  It was great at evoking a time and a place (New York in the 1970s) but I wish I had read it first.  If I had, I would have liked it more.  That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it - I did, very much.  But 'M Train' is definitely the better book.  And I hate to say it, but I really didn't get the charm of Robert Mapplethorpe (I tutted loudly when she wrote that she and Robert knew that he wasn't cut out for full time employment), but then who's to say what binds us to certain people.

But there was a lot to think about in both books and it'll be a while before anything grips me like they did.  I particularly enjoy her attitude towards photography - always taking her trusty Polaroid and just shooting what is interesting to her, rather than the picturesque.  For example, old boots, tables, a stuffed bear.  I was thinking about that the other night as I was going through some photos and I realised that quite often on here I'll go for the 'best' photo (please note the inverted commas), rather than the memory shot.

In that vein, I give you a lemon, slightly past its best.