Overview
Carter is the first-person viewpoint character of “Portrait of Camille Oken.” He is a New York arts writer sent by a Brooklyn magazine to Flagstaff to profile Camille Oken, a portrait photographer whose work has recently attracted attention.
Biography
Carter arrives in Flagstaff with an altitude headache and a limited travel budget. Camille picks him up at the airport, and Carter spends the drive studying her rather than beginning a conventional interview.
When Carter tries to discuss Camille’s work, she says she wants to photograph him first. Carter initially says he cannot afford her fee, but Camille offers the portrait for free because she wants to know him before he profiles her.
Carter goes out with Camille and several of her local friends at a Flagstaff bar. He feels out of place among the musicians and cooks and understands himself as a Brooklyn outsider. Afterward, he sits with Camille in her parked car while she talks about fearing change, staying the same, aging, being left behind, and forgetting the present feeling.
At Camille’s studio, Carter becomes uncomfortable as the subject of the portrait. He describes himself as anxious and unused to the center of attention. Over the long session, he and Camille talk about fear, purpose, art, her past, and his own worries about solitude, graduate school, and wasted time.
Carter loses his sense of time during the session and imagines an entire life with Camille, including romance, marriage, children, and death. When he starts crying and turns his head away, Camille takes one photograph and tells him he can now profile her.
Carter cannot finish the assignment as a professional profile. He writes the draft in a rush, calls Camille, and asks whether she will date him if he stays in Flagstaff, quits his job, and has his belongings sent from New York.
Carter is last seen resigning from the magazine, saying he may give up writing, and planning to meet Camille at Sweet Remembrance on Tuesday. The final editorial note says the piece will be killed and Carter will be removed from the payroll.