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Matinee: 'Face to Face With Fran Lebowitz'
3 June 2023
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 503rd in our series of Saturday matinees today: Face to Face With Fran Lebowitz.
This is a one minute exposure to Fran Lebowitz, who is no less brilliant than the sun and as far from artificial light as you can get. She is a New Yorker who inhabits an apartment stuffed with books she loves like distant relatives who come to visit and never leave.
And she is funny. She is very funny.
Just to give you a concrete example (urban humor would allow no other kind), in Kara Swisher's 2021 interview with Lebowitz, she revealed what she tells tourists who annoy her on the streets of New York. "Pretend it's a city."
Fortunately Gregory Poole provides more than one concrete example of Lebowitz's humor in this one-minute video from the International Center of Photography's Face to Face exhibit, which closed last month. It's full of fun.
Lebowitz talks about having her portrait taken by Brigitte Lacombe, whom she likes because, well, Lacombe does not annoy her. Lacombe tells her what to do but she's not annoying.
As far as the photograph itself goes, Lebowitz does have a high standard and she isn't shy about it. "I would rather have a flattering photograph than a great photograph," she says. She speaks for all humanity.
But she quickly adds that with Lacombe, she didn't have to choose.
She brags that she is the only person in the world with a Brigitte Lacombe original in her passport.
Face to Face featured over 50 portraits of artists by Tacita Dean, Brigitte Lacombe and Catherine Opie presents. Among the exposed luminaries were Maya Angelou, Richard Avedon, Louise Bourgeois, Joan Didion, David Hockney, Miranda July, Rick Owens, Martin Scorsese, Patti Smith, Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker, and John Waters.
Brigitte Lacombe's contribution to Face to Face was a selection of Lacombe's studio portraits and portraits of artists taken in their own studios. She is also engaged in a long term project of shoots on Martin Scorsese's movie sets. Her set pictures show artists at work and her photos depict an ongoing portrait of the director over time.
We have no idea how Lacombe reacted to Lebowitz's, well, testimonial. But we would advise, "Brigitte, pretend it's a testimonial."