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Feb. 2004
I saw
my poem in your website. Dec. 2003 Hi, With many
thanks for your attention, February 9, 2002 Dear Barney, I
am thrilled to get the catalog of your Conflict in China exhibit,
along with the great Janos Gat catalog. The photos are extraordinary
--- it's as if you shared the sensibilities of Eugène Atget and adapted
them in your own style to the bleak horror of war. Uncanny: you have
looked through your camera and seen totally what confronted
you, not unlike Atget, who, in his images of Paris streets, also saw
totally what confronted him. The fact that your photos reveal bodies
and his photos reveal buildings is only a surface difference. Your
bodies unveil context, so do his buildings. Wow! I will spare you
further comments on the basic indivisibility of function and form. Howard (Turner) February 4, 2002 Dear Barney, I received your horrific and wonderful China photos with riveting narrative. My current girlfriend's son lives in the same region of China. He's engaged to a Muslim Chinese girl. My dad was a grunt in New Guinea and the Philippines. The photos and narrative brought back memories of his jungle combat stories. I wish that I could be in New York to see the exhibit in person. Congratulations. Elliot (Feldman)
February 7, 2002 Dear Barney and Astrid, Congratulations on your China exhibition and catalogue, which arrived yesterday! The photographs are fascinating, and so is the text (I'm now in Liuchow...). A good taste of your memoirs to come, I suspect. Love, Patricia (Albers) February 13, 2002 Dear Barney and Astrid, was good, very good to see you both again. The photos I found very Barney: disturbing, beautiful, honest, dynamic. I do hope to see you both soon and as always wish you and yours the very best..... Patrick (Walsh) February 18, 2002 dear friends so sorry to have missed the vernissage, but i did finally get to the gat gallery and wanted to tell you that the images are magnificent ! all best wishes Benjamin Ivry September - November 20Ol When Richard Milazzo sent his poem "Even Before They Could Enter", he also sent the following letter with it. Dear Barney, A few weeks back you sent me a beautiful and moving text that you had written about the situation in Afghanistan and downtown Manhattan, as well as several written by others. I wanted to respond in a comparable spirit, but found that my initial feelings were too confused. I'm not sure that they are any clearer now. I am too conflicted about my love of Arabic and Islamic culture and what happened recently to make any real sense of it. Anyway, this is my response, not specifically to what you wrote but to the thing in general. I think there is too much ideology in it to make it function very well. I had originally wanted to write something when I heard about the child who had asked her mother about the "birds on fire" that were falling from the buildings. She was, of course, referring to all of the people who were throwing themselves out of the windows to escape the flames. Anyway, between you and that child's phrase which I could not get out of my head, this is my response. -Richard Milazzo |
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04 Dec 2001 Wonderful to see evergreen continue in this new media of the internet. One of my favorite books is a big collection of Evergreen reprints from the 50s and early 60s -- something I've read and re-read over the years with great pleasure. The history of the literary avant-garde in this country is unimaginable without factoring in the genius, prescience and good (& sometimes shocking!) taste of Barney Rossett and the Evergreen crew. Keep on moving in the 21st Century, friends! Robert Keaton |
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As for your
text in the catalog, it is a marvelous account, uniquely your own,
a real, ribald, and embracing accompaniment to the grim photos. If
this is a preview of the way you are (thank God!) finally proceeding
with your autobiography, prospective readers all over the continents
can give great thanks.