LAMY Studio Fountain Pen
We’ve long been a fan of LAMY’s Safari fountain pen. It’s inexpensive, well-designed, and writes very well in our favorite notebooks. However, it also has the appearance of being inexpensive and well-designed. So, we set our sights on something a little more refined a couple months ago and came home with a new LAMY Studio fountain pen in black. It was, on eBay at least, less than two times the price of the Safari, and it’s become our new favorite pen. Some objects just feel right in hand, and this is one of them.
Why People Photograph by Robert Adams
This is a slim little book of essays by photographer Robert Adams. I’ve often thought that the best writing about art comes not from professional critics and academics but from true fans or people who actually practice the art form about which they’re writing. Adams’s book only supports that opinion. My favorite line: “[Photographers] may not make a living by photography, but they are alive by it.”
Original Crown Mill Stationery
I first discovered this paper at Flax in Westwood in 2004. It’s since become my favorite paper for letters whether handwritten or laser printed, and it works well with a variety of inks.
Once by Wim Wenders
I adore this book of photographs and text by Wim Wenders, much of which he shot while doing research for his films, which include Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas, and Buena Vista Social Club. Its title comes from the idea that photos don’t create ongoing moments, to steal the title of Geoff Dyer’s book; more than anything, they tell you that this happened once and will never happen again. Wenders concludes his volume:
“Once is not enough,”
I used to say as a kid.
That seemed very plausible to me,
“once upon a time.”
But when you take pictures,
I learned,
none of that applies.
Then once is
“once and for all.”
Comptoir de l’image
This store in the middle of the Marais in Paris could be notable for its collection of Vogue back issues alone. But it also happens to have an excellent selection of old photography books and is not to be missed if you’re in Paris and care at all about visual culture, fashion, photography, or seeing.
Comptoir de l’image 44 rue Sévigné, 75003 Paris
The Art of Fiction: Jonathan Franzen in Paris Review 195
Jonathan Franzen’s interview cuts to the core of my rising distaste for technology “which provides endless distractions and encourages the endless pursuit of more goods…antithetical to the project of literature, which is to connect with that which is unchanging and unchangeable, the tragic dimension of life.”