Editing is letting go of even some of the good ones.

Separation is strange. I've been with the same, wonderful man since I was 19 years old. At 39 he decided that I needed to stretch my wings for reals.

I'm moving next weekend to a tiny one bedroom apartment in the museum district. I've never known bachelorhood and hoped I never would, but alas, here I am taping up boxes and ruthlessly editing out books I want to keep and books that need to find a new home. Special books I'm giving away. Chicano studies books and liberal political books will go to Sedition Books. Vegetarian cook books to the ex (I'm not a vegetarian, never have been, and god give me strength I never will). The rest to charity since I don't want to waste Half Price Books' time.

What's left are books on: photography, architecture, film, rock and roll, boxing, dictionaries, my Stanislaw Lems, my Borgeses, Treasure of The Sierra Madre and the Jim Thompson book Henderson gave me for Christmas. I'm also toting the Richard Meltzer books my treasured friend and film buff KB lent me including the hilarious little tome he co-authored with Nick Tocshes called Frankie Part I.



Speaking of KB, and-for-the-record, I'd like to correct my last Weegee blog (you knew I had to slip him in, right? Right.) which incorrectly stated that "Naked City" was his only photography book. KB proved me wrong by lending me "Weegee's People", 2nd printing on DaCapo originally put out in 1946. It's novel-thick with low quality images on every single page and short captions that tell a story of a city. I'm quite shocked at how similar my own zine is to it. In fact, first thing I'll do after I move is put out the third edition. If I can get five or ten zines done soon, I'll look for funding to put out a compendium, similar to his.

Lincoln is the tall dude, in the back...

This is an article about a recently discovered photo of Abraham Lincoln. It's remarkable for a number of reasons not the least of which is that there are only 130 photographs of Lincoln known to exist. The article came out in this morning's wire. I'm adding this book, cited in the article, to my "want" list: "Lincoln in Photographs: An Album of Every Known Pose," by Charles Hamilton and Lloyd Ostendorf. [Aside: I LOVE books about process, the more detail laden the better and this is also a note to myself to post about the Weegee essay book I'm reading...]

My favorite part of the article is this quote by Keya Morgan, photographer and Lincoln geek: "Not knowing who the photographer is is like not knowing who your mother or father is". The photographer of this now famous photograph was named Henry F. Warren, we know because his seal was on the back.

I'm not sure about you but if my photographs leave the house I write my name on the back and put the word "proof" to lay witness to the fact that it's not meant to be the best print I could possibly make. You just never know, you know?