exquisite pain

i read this book today. the first two thirds are devoted to photos, letters, and accounts of sophie calle's three month visit to japan, which are her last ninety-three days until she reaches her "unhappiness," which turns out to be her lover leaving her for another woman. the remaining third of the book, calle recounts the incident over and over on every other page, rewording it every time and the print becoming darker and darker until there is no print, only the image of her hotel room and the red phone on which she received the news. on the adjacent pages to her retellings are brief stories of friends and strangers about the time in their life they felt the most pain. each memory is accompanied by a photograph.

what is remarkable about this work is that calle says that the retelling of her story placed side by side with other's stories of suffering actually did help heal her broken heart.

i love calle's photography and wish i could find some better examples to post:


this is sophie...she's quit a lovely little french woman...