Evanescente

Henry Cartier-Bresson [1908-2004]

"One day Cartier-Bresson received a telephone call from the writer Jorge Luis Borges, who wished to know wether he would be willing to accept a prize for which Borges wanted to nominate him.

The prize was offered by a rich woman who lived in Sicily. It was for artists of all kinds. What distinguished this prize from most others was that it was the previous prize winner who nominated, after two years, the next one. And today Borges wanted to give the prize to Cartier-Bresson. "Why me?" - he asked. "Because I am blind," said Borges, "and I want to give it to you in recognition of your eyes."

Cartier-Bresson felt he could not refuse Borges and so he travelled to Palermo for the award ceremony. There, he was put in a highly reputed old hotel. Its name, or something about it, seemed familiar to him. Finally he found out why. It was the hotel his parents had gone to, on their honeymoon. He was born nine months later. In this same hotel, where he was lodged because his eyes had won a prize, he had been conceived".
Pablo Cabado