Remembering Roland Barthes on his birthday 🎂
📷 Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1963
"Among the brand-name French theorists of the mid-20th century, Roland Barthes was the fun one. (Foucault was the tough one, Derrida was the dreamy one, Lacan was the mysterious one...)"
- Sam Anderson
Roland Barthes by Jean-François Bauret, 1980
A portrait from the philosopher's final year.
Another portrait by Jean-François Bauret of Barthes, from 1980. This must have been one of the last photographs of Barthes, since he died on March 26th of that year. @MAPatrimoine
Another photo session from Barthes's last month. Photographed by Michel Delaborde at his home on rue Servandoni, February 5, 1980.
Twenty days later, Roland Barthes was knocked down by a laundry van while walking home from a lunch with François Mitterand. He died a month later.
More shots by Michel Delaborde of Roland Barthes, taken at his home in the last month of his life, February 1980.
Roland Barthes by Michel Delaborde, 1980.
Look how he seems to fade away in the contact sheet (planche contact in French).
Learning with Roland Barthes at the Collége de France, complete with cigarettes.
📷 Daniel Boudinet, 1975
For Roland Barthes's birthday, this Daniel Boudinet photograph of the philosopher with his Collége de France students, 1975 @MAPatrimoine
Roland Barthes by Ferdinando Scianna, 1977
"For Death must be somewhere in a society; if it is no longer (or less intensely) in religion, it must be elsewhere; perhaps in this image which produces Death while trying to preserve life."
- Camera Lucida
Roland Barthes in his apartment on Place Saint-Sulpice.
📷 Sophie Bassouls, 1978
"The photographic image... is a message without a code."
- Roland Barthes
📷 Robert Capa, Barcelona, 1939
"Cameras, in short, were clocks for seeing."
- Roland Barthes
Ansel Adams' Arca-Swiss 4x5 View Camera
"Every photograph is a certificate of presence."
- Roland Barthes
📷 Elliott Erwitt, Budapest, 1964
"…the book creates meaning, the meaning creates life."
- Roland Barthes
📷 Mark Twain by Alvin Langdon Coburn, 1908
"Each of us has his own rhythm of suffering."
- Roland Barthes
📷 Garry Winogrand, Los Angeles, 1980-83
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Remembering Édouard Vuillard on his birthday 🎂
Self-Portrait with Waroquy @metmuseum, 1889
"Nothing is important save the spiritual state that enables one to subjectify one's thoughts to a sensation and to think only of the sensation, all the while searching to express it."
Édouard Vuillard
The artist's sister with a cup of coffee, 1893 ☕️
Oil on cardboard @FitzMuseum_UK
Édouard Vuillard
The Green Interior (Figure Seated by a Curtained Window)
1891 @metmuseum
"I don’t do portraits. I paint people in their surroundings."
Remembering Paul Signac on his birthday 🎂
A portrait by Georges Seurat, 1890
"The Neo-Impressionist does not stipple, he divides. And dividing involves... guaranteeing all benefits of light."
Paul Signac
Evening Calm, Concarneau, Opus 220 (Allegro Maestoso), 1891 @metmuseum
On Paul Signac's birthday, download the free PDF of Signac, 1863–1935: Master Neo-Impressionist, from the 2001 @metmuseum exhibition. metmuseum.org/art/metpublica…
Remembering Carlos Fuentes on his birthday 🎂
📷 Christopher Pillitz, London, 1994
"We cannot fathom a debate on Mexican literary and humanistic traditions in which his name and work are absent."
- Rubén Beltrán
Carlos Fuentes was a member of the Cannes jury in 1977. What a fascinating group!
Roberto Rossellini, Anatole Dauman, Benoîte Groult, Carlos Fuentes, Jacques Demy, Marthe Keller, Pauline Kael, Youri Ozerov & N'sougan Agblemagnon
📷 Patrice Picot, May 20
Carlos Fuentes & Gabriel Garcia Marquez were close friends
📷 Dario Lopez-Mills, 2008
Fuentes inscribed one of his books to "Gabo" with fabulous drawings of the two authors.
Remembering Mose Allison on his birthday 🎂
📷 Jack Vartoogian, 1998
"In the South, I’m considered an advanced bebop type. In New York, I’m considered a country blues-folk type. Actually, I don’t think I’m either. Maybe I’m a little of both."
Mose Allison by Ebet Roberts, 1989
"He established himself playing & singing in a gentle, understated way, in a narrow range & using a bouncing, jigging rhythm that was closely related to the so-called 'swamp music' that Jimmy Giuffre was playing."
- John S. Wilson
Mose Allison by Michael Wilson
"There's a lot of terrible things goin' on all the time, but you gotta try and have some fun in the end."
I Love the Life I Live:
Remembering Kurt Vonnegut on his birthday 🎂
📷 Inge Morath, 1986
"He laughed a lot and was kind to everyone."
- Dan Wakefield
Jill Krementz took this picture of herself & her husband Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt and me at the end of the evening.
In Kurt’s words: ”When things are going sweetly and peacefully, please pause a moment, and then say out loud, ‘If this isn’t nice, what is?’”
Kurt Vonnegut
"I would just as soon have skipped it all", 2006 @smithsonian National Portrait Gallery