Hello Photo-Group,
Earlier this summer we made contact with Brandon Friant, a member of another local area photo group. We heard about this group at our spring meeting with Bruce Harkness as one of our members had attended their meeting.
Brandon had been reading To Photograph is to Learn How to Die by Tim Carpenter and we thought it might make an interesting discussion between the groups. It might be possible to widen the audience as a hybrid Zoom discussion and at a larger venue outside of the bookstore.
The book is a long essay on photography that can be read in several ways. It uses divergent and supporting quotations and literary resources as small side essays and arguments to expand the author’s concern for photography and the arts as a tool for self-exploration. The book may interest artists or writers in other disciplines who are welcome to join the discussion.
Depending on the interest level, we’d like to propose a meeting near the end of October or early November. If interest is strong perhaps we could meet on a Sunday afternoon at Trinosophes, a coffee house and performance space near Eastern Market. A later email will confirm the exact time, place, and date.
The book can be picked up at Book Beat at a 15% discount – just mention you’re reading it for the discussion group. Copies are in stock and if you’d like it shipped the charge is $4.99, just send an email to bookbeatorders@gmail.com and we’ll send you a PayPal invoice.
Please RSVP your interest and we’ll add your name to the discussion list. Thank you.
~Cary Loren c/o Book Beat
Here are a few comments on the book:
“Tim Carpenter has crafted a dynamic weaving of thought that I can best describe as a 3-D read. Using quotes by poets and philosophers to specify, and his own writing to illuminate and unify, he describes in 360? the perspective on creative thought and action that we’ve been needing, waiting for. You’ll want to keep this book nearby.”
—Terri Weifenbach
“I don’t know anybody who believes in photography more than Tim Carpenter. His book-length essay draws widely from literature, music, and philosophy, but it’s in service of his passionate sermon on photographs and their ability to elevate our experience of the world. Preach, Brother Tim, preach!”
—Alec Soth
“To tease out the ineffable and ultimately leave it undisturbed. This is a book that rewards those who defiantly embrace the idiosyncrasies and shortcomings that lend us our essential individuality while sharing in an abiding love for this flawed world.”
—Raymond Meeks