Last summer, in Greensboro, North Carolina, at a retrospective exhibition of my work, a photographer introduced himself and asked a question no one had ever asked me. I assumed he was a photographer because he carried a camera bag, its pockets bulging with lenses. I thought he might ask if I preferred using a digital or a film camera, or if I preferred color to black-and-white film. But no, his question was different. He said he’d noticed that out of a hundred plus photographs in the exhibit, only one was titled “Chapel Hill.” “There must have been others, right? You’re from Chapel Hill.”
I told him that I seldom photographed in Chapel Hill.
“But why?” he asked.
I said, “Because I live there. I can’t do two things at once.”
I think he laughed. At least I hope he did, because I didn’t intend to be rude.
But I was serious.