Light falls off
At the square of the distance.
Follows the light
Through the streets of Paris.
Works for Time / Life.
Seeks evidence to prove
What dies does not disappear :
Returns to the scene of the crime.
Photographs behind the lines —
Sends photographs of carnage
To President as protest —
Dies, shooting too close to the front.
Works for Fortune.
Follows nameless numbered routes past
Diners, movie houses, motels,
Photographing signs.
The apprehension of reality through
Depiction of selected phenomena :
Writing with light.
All negatives lost in warehouse fire
In Brooklyn, in 1947.
Existing prints are copies
Done by others.
The infrastructure of the support
Is evident in the surface.
In French, as in English,
The word for camera lens ( objectif )
Is also the modifier “objective”.