Cirrus@Austlit

'In the photograph, the woman’s head tilts right. Her face registers a slight smile, but it’s hard to make out the expression behind her eyes, though I’m leaning into the page to look closer. What am I looking for? To put into language what the photograph purports to capture, some quality of the real beyond its paper, this fiction. Here’s my descriptive attempt. She is alone, not if you count the pigeons milling about her sandaled feet, or the tourists idling in the background. I think it’s summer or spring. Her sandals give it away. The woman is standing in Piazza San Marco. I’m guessing this from the caption beneath the photograph which reads: in Venice.'  (Introduction)