Photo Essay

Ode to Ulysses' Gaze

DYUTIMAN MUKHOPADHYAY PHOTOGRAPHY

Photograph by Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay, Camera: Redmi Note 8 Pro.

April 13, 2022; Calcutta, India.

‘When I return,

It wiII be with another man s cIothes.

Another man’s name.

My coming wiII be unexpected.

If you Iook at me,

UnbeIieving and say,

You are not here…

I wiII show you signs

And you wiII beIieve me.

I wiII teII you about the Iemon tree in your garden.

The corner window that Iets in the moonIight.

And then signs of the body.

Signs of Iove.

And as we cIimb trembIing to our oId room,

Between one embrace and the next,

Between Iover’s caIIs,

I wiII teII you about the journey...

AII the night Iong.

And then aII the nights to come.

Between one embrace and the next.

Between Iover’s caIIs.

The whoIe human adventure.

The story that never ends.’

— The final monologue, Ulysses' Gaze (1995).

The film received the Grand Jury Prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and was voted in the all-time 100 movies by the TIME magazine. It was selected as the Greek entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 68th Academy Awards but was not nominated for the Oscars.