Portraits
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Andre
Kertesz
Andre Kertesz lived at 2 Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village, just a
short walk from Downtown Sound. I got to know him in the early 1970’s
and visited him frequently. At the time I regarded him as the most
poetic photographer I’d ever encountered and after looking at
photographs for a quarter of a century, I haven’t changed my mind.
In those years Andre was slightly past his prime as a photographer, but
that didn’t stop him from pursuing his vision. One day he came to
Downtown Sound he took photographs of Joe Venuti and Zoot Sims. About
the same time he undertook a wonderful series of miniatures in his
apartment using the Polaroid SX-70, creating a lovely body of work that
was published as From My Window.
This double portrait was taken just for fun. One day in 1980, I
telephoned Andre and suggested I come by and visit. The shortest way to
his apartment from my studio was across 8th Street and somewhere along
the way I stumbled upon the funny sunglasses on the sidewalk. I picked
them up, and, when I arrived, gave them to Andre as a joke. He put them
on and I took a snapshot. He traded the glasses for my camera and took
one of me.
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