"PORTRAITS: FRIENDS AND STRANGERS" par Michael MATHERS. Editions Madrona, Seattle. 1979. Grand in-8 carré, dos droit, couverture souple cartonnée photo (état d'usage). Non paginé (144p). Texte en anglais, avant-propos de Thomas Farber, illustré de 68 reproductions photographiques noir & blanc, pleine page, par Michael Mathers.

 

""I was one of the curious," Michael Mathers writes, explaining how he came to be in the home of an elderly woman who was reading auras. "Curious", however, just doesn't do him justice, this self-described "visual dog in heat" whose hunger impels him into a Skid Row hotel, has him stepping over a pile of eight-inch rubber penises, draws him to a slaughterhouse, a funeral home, a drag queen ball. Take shim to Fossil, Oregon. And leads him over and again to the homes of his friends. "As is my nature," he writes, "I brought my camera." Powerfully individually, as a collection these portraits overwhelm. If at first we are sure which people are "straight," which not, soon we are lost. Who, really, are the gargoyles here? About to look out through the window at the "stupid bastards" who pay to stay at her, the carnival's Fat Lady is sure she knows who the real freaks are. Were these portraits only a record of the grotesque, they would arrest attention, but they compel a far more subtle view. Mathers catches the strangeness of us all, yet seldom passes judgment. These are our lives, he seems to be saying; we all have to learn to live with ourselves, whatever others take us to be. See us as…"

 

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