Source: See Buenos Aires Index.
Image: The professor-photographer chatting with Borges.
Comments: There is an important story to be told about the conversation whose interlocutors you see here, a story that has never been told so publicly before. Here it is in the first person:

Part 1 of 4

I had taught Latin American literature, civilization, culture, and humanities a dozen times before this encounter at his home in Buenos Aires. During the Malvinas (Falklands) War between Argentina and Great Britain in 1982, Borges was in the United States given a lecture/recital tour of several U.S. colleges and universities. When he was at Dickenson College, Pennsylvania, I called the Chair of the Spanish Department to invite Borges to lecture at Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, where I was teaching at the time. I had the privilege of speaking directly with Borges to issue my invitation. I started the conversation in Spanish, but when he heard my name, he switched to English, saying, "You know, my English is pretty good." He was fascinated by the name of my college because it sounds as if it honors the great American poet, Walt Whitman. (It doesn't, but, at the time I didn't have time to correct the false impression. The college actually is named for an American Protestant missionary named Marcus Whitman, who founded Walla Walla as an Indian mission and wagon train stop in eastern Washington before Washington became a State decades later.) He agreed in principal that he would accept my invitation and that we would firm up details when he (and Maria Kodama) got to Macalaster College in St. Paul, Minnesota. When he called he again referred to Leaves of Grass and began reciting the lines from the great poem in which the poet (not the missionary) refers to "Walla Walla". I was startled that he knew America's epic poem—in English!—and that he could retrieve from memory the dozen verses that surround the mention of this location. We ended this second conversation agreeing that he would call again in a couple of days. Meanwhile I did two things: first I continued making all necessary preparations to get him to my remote location in eastern Washington; and, second, I immediately called the College's expert on Walt Whitman at Whitman College to tell him about Borges' and his stunning feat of memory. I asked my colleague to confirm the accuracy of Borges' recitation (stupid thing to do!). He said he had no clue, he didn't recognize the reference, but he would research it and get back to me. A day later my colleague called to tell me that Borges was right, indeed, there is a reference to Walla Walla in the Leave of Grass, but it is not to the location in Washington State, but rather to a location in Australia. Two days later Borges called again with his regrets about not being able to fly to lecture at Whitman College. Instead, due to his international status, he was being called back to Argentina as a courrier with a diplomatic message related to the war between Argentina and Britain, with the United States siding with our English ally in violation the U.S.'s own Monroe Doctrine. He ended the phone conversation thanking with with his impeccable good manners, he thanked me for the invitation, and he invited me to go visit him in Buenos Aires at a later, more peaceful, time.
For the continuation of the story (Part 2 of 4 Parts), see: => Buenos Aires #18f.