To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world — in order to set up a shadow world of “meanings. - Susan Sontag

Photographs that depict suffering shouldn't be beautiful, as captions shouldn't moralize.

Algo feo o grotesco puede ser conmovedor porque la atención del fotógrafo lo ha dignificado. Algo bello puede ser objeto de sentimientos tristes porque ha envejecido o decaído o ya no existe. Todas las fotografías son memento morí. Hacer una fotografía es participar de la mortalidad, vulnerabilidad, mutabilidad de otra persona o cosa. Precisamente porque seccionan un momento y lo congelan, todas las fotografías atestiguan la despiadada disolución del tiempo.

Apocalypse is now a long-running serial: not “Apocalypse Now” but “Apocalypse From Now On.” Apocalypse has become an event that is happening and not happening. It may be that some of the most feared events, like those involving the irreparable ruin of the environment, have already happened. But we don’t know it yet, because the standards have changed. Or because we do not have the right indices for measuring the catastrophe. Or simply because this is a catastrophe in slow motion. (Or feels as if it is in slow motion, because we know about it, can anticipate it; and now have to wait for it to happen, to catch up with what we think we know.) Modern