BLIND SPOT- TEJU COLE

I’m glad I finally got my hands on a copy of this from the library. I read Open City a while ago and adored it and I’ve been following Cole’s photography column for a while and I adore that as well. Cole has that wonderful quality in a critic of being so encyclopedic and and careful in his criticism that he will mention another photograph or artist in relation to his main subject and it will instantly and irrevocably change the way you see the work in question. The man is so erudite and emphatic it’s hard to keep up. This book is very different. It isn’t photography criticism, like he does for the Times, and it isn’t a travelogue (though it documents one year of nearly constant travel), and it isn’t a portfolio of Cole’s photographs and it isn’t a collection of essays though it contains the elements of each of these forms. It’s, frankly, closest to a beautifully bound, physical copy of the world’s most high brow instagram account (Cole’s actual instagram account is currently posting very close up photos of individual brush strokes in paintings paired with, largely unrelated, lyrical prose). Each photo gets sits across from a short passage that may or may not be (obviously) related to the photo itself. I prefer the writing to the photography. Cole’s photos are almost completely devoid of humans and when we do see them, it’s mostly from behind. “Imagine, for a moment, that every face you cannot see is your own face, but years later. The future is lined with your face.” Cole writes. His photos also frequently contain sheets (often clear plastic) and panes of glass and fences and other visual representations of layers and screens. I’ve been flipping through just the photos senses finishing the book and they are growing on me. There’s something creepy and cold about them. They seem so composed and despite being photos, they suggest and eternity rather than an instant. But I stand behind my commitment to read whatever Cole writes. He’s so ethereal and poetic. Marinate on this passage, opposite a photo of a titled Nigerian grave: “The overlap between the grave, the bath, the bed: strategic escape from the burden of verticality.” Wonderful. 8 flashes.