4.26.2005

my life in pictures

It's the curse of my career that I never write for writing's sake, but for photography's sake. Photo captions a specialty. Amanuesis to photographers, that's me. The most important journalistic skill I learned in a long career at (the former) Life magazine was how to stay out of the frame.
It's a lesson I learned so well that I am now privileged to write essays for photographers' books. The latest is one by Chien-Chi Chang, for which I was able to stay out of frames in both Vietnam and Taiwan. Called Double Happiness (an ironic title, trust me), it has just been released by Aperture.
Double Happiness is also the name of a popular brand of cigarettes in Taiwan. I have several packs in my Cigarettes From Around the World collection.
Reason I can't quit: I need something to do while I'm waiting for the click.

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