Wednesday Edition: Kirby Pilcher

Buenas tardes, coleccionistas de arte! (This is how the internet told me to say "Good evening, collectors!" The Spanish-speaking among you might be chuckling, but can you fault me for the effort?) Lucky for all of us, I shall not endeavor to deliver this newsletter entirely in Spanish.

Today's photograph Fortune (will be successful in...) is a favorite of mine, and has been since its taker Kirby Pilcher submitted it to Hey, Hot Shot! in Winter of '07. I wasn't the only one charmed; the entire panel agreed, and we showed this along with two other images from his Room Temperature series as part of that season's exhibition.

I am ever in search of anthems, witty quotes and words to live by. Its an utter compulsion that tends to bedevil my reading comprehension. I find myself scanning for the perfect snippet to remove from it's context and elevate as having True Meaning. I do this with novels, newspapers and magazines. I confess that part of my attraction to poetry and song lyrics is how easy it is to pluck the just-so part for placement elsewhere.

I know I'm not alone in this, as evidenced by the wealth of lyrics available and decoded online, and the tag lines so many people I know have claimed as their own on blogs, Twitter or Facebook. And of course, just like you, I've sat around the table with friends countless times, opening fortune cookies with ritualistic attention. I've kept several taped to my monitor for years on end, so that I'd always have some affirmation of future accomplishment just in view, out of the corner of my eye.

In Kirby's photo we have a fragment of fortune that's so ripe with possibility, or is it portent? I will be the optimist and call it possibility, because look at what it's brought already! It's been transformed into a beautiful photo, set against a sunny, sentimental background and is right this second being viewed by tens of thousands of people. Seems like a pretty successful right here and now, if you ask me.

I need to make the most of my own here and now. Jet-lag has undone me, which means that I've spent too much of today sleeping and the rest of it dazedly getting lost amidst Madrid's teensy tiny winding streets. I did discover that I'm just a stone's throw from the Prado, which is good news indeed; The Renaissance Portrait opened there yesterday and it seems like it will be absolutely incredible.

On tap for tonight is a reception at the Circulo de Bellas Artes for David Claerbout and Roni Horn. Portfolio reviews start tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to meeting lots of interesting photo world people. My fellow reviewers are an impressive lot, and the 70 Descubrimientos PHE finalists represent a great array of nationalities and genres. Of note is the fact that 20x200 photographers Jessica Bruah and Birthe Piontek are among those finalists. It'll be fun to hang out with them too!

Now, I'm off till next week, when I'll be back stateside with more printed matter to share with you all.

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