Celestial Timepiece

Photography Session

—in memory of Jim Jacobs

You died on Wednesday. On Friday
I’m hauled by limousine to be photographed
for a magazine feature, Charles Street
near Varick, a garbagey smell to the air.
March 25 and warm as May! “My object,”
the photographer explains, “is an utterly
natural image.” His five assistants, all male,
move like dancers in the semi-dark.

For years you’d kept your dying a secret.
The illness . . . its dread name. Chemotherapy
and blood transfusions and the rest. Sparing
us, one might say cheating us of premature sorrow.

Thirty minutes were required to make up my face.
Pain doesn’t sweat at any pore, nor
does the meager soul reveal itself.
Layered in paste, paint, rouge . . . I’m safe.
“Look into the lens,” the photographer says
patiently, repeatedly, “—look at me.”

—Joyce Carol Oates
From The Time Traveler

Photo by Robert Benyas

Photo by Fay Godwin

Photo by Jeff Sciortino

Photo by Star Black

Photo by Charlie Gross

Painting by Renée Heinecke

Photo by Jack Robinson

Photo by Jill Krementz

Drawing by David Annesley

Photo by Layle Silbert

Photo by Layle Silbert

Photo by Beth Gwinn

Photo by Raymond Smith

Photo by Graeme Gibson

Studio Photo

Photo by Jerry Bauer

Photo by Dustin Cohen

Photo by Juliet van Otteren

Photo by Graeme Gibson

Photo by Marion Ettlinger

Drawing by Joyce Carol Oates

Photo by Norman Seef

Photo by Norman Seef

Photo by Mary Cross

Photo by Jerry Bauer

Photo by Jerry Bauer

Painting by Gloria Vanderbilt

Photo by Brian J. Berman

Photo by Jerry Bauer

More Images 

Image of camera by Maddie Smith