GEORGE PITTS- LEGENDARY

I HAVE PERSONAL MEMORIES OF GEORGE PITTS.

ORIGINALLY MET HIM THROUGH MY ARTIST/PHOTOGRAPHER- 

THE LATE CARLOS BATTS, GEORGE & BONDED IMMEDIATELY.

GEORGE HAD COMPLETE ADMIRATION FOR WHAT I WAS CREATED @ ANTEBELLUM HOLLYWOOD, AND WAS ALWAYS SUPPORTIVE.

GEORGE'S PHOTOGRAPHY WAS FEATURED IN MY EXHIBITION- "BLACKS"

 ONE OF THE FIRST ALL BLACK FETISH-EROTIC-HOMOEROTIC ART SHOWS 

IN LOS ANGELES.

YEARS LATER I MET GEORGE IN NYC @ "TEA & SYMPATHY" FOR A NICE CUPPA.

WE HAD A MUTUAL TEA FETISH IN COMMON.

BESIDES BEING A LEGENDARY PHOTO EDITOR FOR VIBE & LIFE MAGAZINES, GEORGE HAD DROPPED OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM TO BECOME A MONK FOR ONE YEAR. I WAS INTRIGUED BY THIS AND ASKED HIM NUMEROUS QUESTIONS.

GEORGE SAID SOMETHING TO ME THAT I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER- 

"BECOMING A MONK WAS THE BEST THING I EVER DID IN MY LIFE.

 IT GROUNDED ME, PUT MY PRIORITES IN PLACE AND HELPED ME SUCCEED IN BUISNESS- ONCE I WAS READY TO GO BACK."

RIP- MASTER-

RC

IN LOVING MEMORY: GEORGE PITTS

10 September 1951 – 4 March 2017 

Please join us in celebrating the life and legacy of George Pitts on Sunday, April 2nd, 2017. The ceremony will begin at 2:00pm and will be held at the Alvin Johnson/J.M Kaplan Hall at 66 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10011. 

As a photographer, artist, poet, teacher, colleague, mentor, friend, and husband George inevitably changed the lives of all who had the pleasure of knowing him. With immeasurable grace, intelligence, and passion, George spent his time prolifically making his own artwork, while simultaneously cultivating creativity and drive in his students as a professor at Parsons for almost two decades. 

In each facet of his life, George brought poise, criticality, and deep engagement with the arts. His speech was mesmerizing, his laugh contagious, and his mind entirely unique. George was an amazing and magnetic soul who will truly be missed. It is a deep loss for his family, friends, school and photo community; his impact will never be forgotten.

-

I Seem and Feel Great Rains Not My System

The rains are a great trial for those in it
In downs it speaks in compression of air being sapped
In bleeds, fallings, gushed moments to contain while yet by the air contained
Twice dead and twice imprisoned, the rain came down and still you are in air
But we love the body, but we love containment
How we love layers, body rain and air
And we move, by on our curve with rain for sides
Our bone born out as thrust when sought by rain,
as form to turn the body in in rain
as rain’s force could flex in body’s turns
But too much with real nature deflaws form
as like when face burned of grimace is burned away
But not like so, but as only to have nudeness
And so stop short the purging before as absence the person
Without his person, unlike being dead, yet near being his body
Because this mind does need this form not bodied to its memory
This person not without its own event, yet in its event it does not need
If in this there shows no feature there then is gladness unnamed
Yet without death closer toward in nature to itself
- George Pitts, Partial Objects

Photograph: Clayton Cubitt