Bruce Jackson Being There: Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Throughout the run of Being There: Bruce Jackson Photographs 1962-2010, the artist is sharing some of the stories behind his photographs.Being There is on view until June 16, 2013. The catalog accompanying the exhibition is available at The Museum Store at the Burchfield Penney.

When the great Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko was here last November for a performance with the Buffalo Philharmonic and a reading at UB, he said he wanted to visit the grain elevators. So Diane Christian and I took him down to Silo City and we walked around the place with Rick Smith and Jim Watkins. This photo is him at the dockside door of the Perot Elevator, the interior of which has columns that remind me of an Egyptian temple. The room has a slight echo—nothing like the incredible hanging echoes under the open columns in Marine A, but enough to notice. A loud voice resonates in there. Yevtushenko loved the look and sound of the space and immediately began reciting poems in Russian. He's got a big voice and that huge chamber resonated with words none of the rest of us understood at all. No matter: it remains one of my favorite poetry readings. (Nikon D800e, lens at 65mm).

The photograph that Diane took of Yevgeny, Rick, Jim and me inside Perot Elevator about the time the poetry was going on (Nikon D800e, lens at 24mm).

-Bruce Jackson