ELIZABETH CARSON

Text: JEFFREY CARSON

Liz remembered

Liz was born in New York, studied at New York University, and from her late twenties lived on Paros. We were married in 1965, when I was twenty, so she was the companion of my whole adult life. It turns out that she was important to a great many others as friend, mentor, and as artist.

Liz died at home on January 16, age eighty-three. She had been suffering the effects of a serious stroke for twelve years and had lost her physical independence, though her intellect remained acute (she continued reading great literature up to the end). Three days later she was buried with a short ceremony in the pretty Paroikia cemetery. I expected maybe a dozen friends to show up on a windy winter’s day, but about fifty did. Another thirty or so on Paros who could not attend called me later. In the next two weeks I received many e-mails of condolence, memory, and appreciation, and I am receiving them still from friends and former students, often quite extensive.

So it seems she was more known, honored, and cherished on Paros than I realized, though I’m not surprised. And many who knew her only slightly do remember her photographs, which they saw in exhibitions during the more than five decades we lived on Paros. For all those years she taught fine art photography at the Aegean Center that depended on the dark room as much as the camera. Her work was mostly large-format, black and white, and required much preparation – where, what, when, why. And Parian photographers as well as foreigners sought her out for direction, instruction, and acquisition.

“Jeffrey, which of these ten prints (unenlarged 8×10 prints of a rock formation, for instance) is the best?” I’d hazard a choice, but she would inevitably reprint it. The meeting of outer subject and inner subject always needed more contemplation. Street smarts and serendipity were not for her. Her subjects were many, and all thought about beforehand. Landscapes, seascapes, classical details, nudes, portraits, farming – the farmers sometimes called her to tell her when they were plowing, reaping, gathering. She did a whole book on the Ekatontapiliani. She had large solo exhibitions at the Farmers’ Union, at the great church, at exhibition spaces in Naousa, Paroikia, Lefkes.

And there are thoughts of her next exhibition, so keep an eye out.