Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Muriel Spark

I had to find a way of distracting her from looking at me with her pretty smile. I said that I needed a minute or two to adjust the settings on the camera. I fiddled with the Rolleiflex, and kept half an eye open to see what she was doing. Then something must have entered her mind and she looked down and forgot I was there. I clicked the shutter.

4 comments:

  1. Great anecdote. It's funny, many (including me) still feel the need to smile unnaturally when having our photos taken. Was this the case here? I'm curious- what was her reaction to this shot? Though well composed and technically brilliant, perhaps like the way Bogarde reacted to his portrait, I imagine she thought it less than flattering.

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  2. Yes, she wrote to me to say that she had asked her agent to take action to make sure it was never seen. I never heard any more.

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  3. Where was this taken? In her backyard?

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