Édouard Levé, Baghdad fisherman and his daughter (2002)
This past weekend, I stumbled on an essay in Paris Review entitled 'When I look at a strawberry, I think of a tongue', by the late French artist Édouard Levé. Three photographs of Levé appear in the essay. I had never heard of him before. He was a self-taught artist, writer, and photographer. His essay was quirky, amusing, and familiar. It was an excerpt from his book ‘Autoportrait’ (review here). He writes without paragraphs and linear thoughts which I found very easy to read. I took a look at his books of photo series and noted how a lot of his works were staged. Also, there is humour in his works. Who knows how tormented he really was as he committed suicide in 2007, 10 days after handing in his last book ‘Suicide’.