Fotografías fijas

Still Photographs begins with the image of a taciturn girl who, in 1939, at the age of five, leaves Prague behind by train, with the skyscrapers of New York on the horizon. Despite her skepticism toward her usual autobiographies, in this book Janet Malcolm directed her attentive gaze toward her own life through photographs and the memories they evoked. Her capricious first loves, her fascination with what it could mean to be a "bad girl" and the evenings at the old Metropolitan Opera House are some of the pieces that make up this intimate portrait of a New York childhood that never lost sight of the influence of Europe. The book also delves into her marriage to Gardner Botsford, in the circle of The New Yorker and in the defamation trial that led her to the bench and to her becoming a character in her own drama. Beyond the mere story of a life, this book is an encounter with identity, a moving and original journey, a fruitful dialogue between photography and memory. Malcolm goes beyond the content of the image and self-recognition. With the brilliant humor that characterized her and a wisdom that is only achieved after a long and impressive life career, she painstakingly reconstructs the memories captured by the lens and weaves exciting memories from the questions they raise.