August 23rd 1978
 
We stopped momentarily this afternoon to discuss in which direction to go. We were trying to find the camp of a man who is presently accompanying us. His family went off without him and no one is sure where they have gone. What we did know was that we had gotten to a place called Tadabuk where the camp existed earlier and where we were ourselves three days ago but now no one wants to remain. There is only some smoke from recent fires, not a single person.
 
A camel with an injured foot is here and the thinking is its owners would not have gone too far away. The man who came with us, who is something of a headman, has been sleeping happily in the Landrover but now has left it to look for signs that could tell him where his subjects might have gone.
 
The day has been extremely hot and oppressive. There was a little dancing in the morning but virtually none last night. All I have done is to make a few Polaroid SX-70 portraits of the younger males. A Polaroid made is most likely a photograph lost, so intent are the subjects on possessing them. I had the idea of doing a series on the male dancers to see if there was any agreement about what set of facial features defined the ideal Borroro. But I have been unable to keep more than a few of the many I have made. Doing this has also created a sideshow that is hard to manage and doesn’t make for much good will. After a few hours, I was worn down by hundreds of pushing and shoving Borroro egotists entreating me to take their picture. I also realized I had not eaten for a long time. It sometimes feels as though I have not eaten since I left Cambridge.
 
Source:
 
Robert Gardner (Author), Charles Simic (Foreword) The Impulse to Preserve: Reflections of a Filmmaker (Peabody Museum - Other Press, 2006 [# ISBN-10: 1590512367 # ISBN-13: 978-1590512364]