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Two artistic thinkers who grew up together in Grand Forks, North Dakota, met again in later years and saw that their works might align smoothly with each other. Thus did Botsford's epigrams and Stolee's photographs successfully merge in this imaginative volume. Both pictures and the short word portraits that accompany them offer only the most subtle clues as to meaning, leaving the observer to think far outside the normally constraining "box" that defines either verse or photography.
An early example depicts a cement walkway with anonymous feet approaching a puddle with pictures from above reflecting so deeply and clearly that one could guess it to be, in fact, a dangerously deep drowning pool. The words beside it also seem to reflect this sense of possible peril or potential fortune: "Ah, the simple epigram / haiku for the common man / leads just around the corner far enough." A lovely array of trees in pale purple bloom gives impressionistic weight calmly matched by the wording placed next to it: "Hundreds of thoughts / Arise and vanish / Just during a cup of wine."
Humor is also never far away, as in Stolee's photo of a rather seamy alleyway, with a brick street, vintage street lamps overhanging, and a tiny sliver of moon in the dark sky above. Botsford's words are again well-chosen, a sort of abashed attempt at an apology for overindulgence suited to this pictorial setting: "It was the writer in me / who criticized your poem / It was the tequila in me / that told you." A startlingly rational offering is found in the mating of an old rowboat pictured in weed-thickened waters, accompanied by this profound commentary: "What if by land / who if by sea / invasions reduce / diversity."
The reader/watcher will appreciate this large, colorful collaboration for encompassing both smiles and furrowed brows as Stolee and Botsford dig ever deeper into their shared aesthetic values. At times, it is nearly impossible to know whether to laugh, shed tears, nod in enthusiastic agreement, or all three. But the hunt for the composers' goal is undeniably enjoyable, such as a relaxing look at the long, tinted tresses of women standing in front of Stolee in a crowded train car and Botsford's declaration that "By the time I was 35 / the young ladies / stopped noticing me. / At 55 I realized this."
One possible explanation for this amazing synchronicity of word and picture may come from the creators having a shared childhood in a region of America "that just happened to be the center of the universe." Botsford still resides there after a career as an Indian rights attorney who has published epigrams in previous collections. Stolee, living on an island near Seattle now, is described as "a pain in the ass to take a walk with," undoubtedly because he is constantly stopping to photograph every small thing that enchants him. After very divergent life experiences, finding one another must have been a pleasant surprise and a rare privilege for both. The readers and lookers who take up Botsford's and Stolee's shared ideations will doubtless be glad it came about.
Winner of the 2022 Eric Hoffer Book Award Art Category