And now for something completely different…poet Wendell Berry on interposing a camera between your life and the world. We live in the time of the curated life — the finest moments buffed and shared to create an impression of a life that conforms to social standards rather than reflecting our actual lives.
We often remember the strangest moments because they are the most meaningful. Perhaps we can use our cameras to catch the most revealing, un-posed moments. A friend commented tonight that he takes multiple photos of a person because the picture “between” pictures is usually the most authentic.
The Vacation
Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.
He went flying down the river in his boat
with his video camera to his eye, making
a moving picture of the moving river
upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly
toward the end of his vacation. He showed
his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,
preserving it forever: the river, the trees,
the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat
behind which he stood with his camera
preserving his vacation even as he was having it
so that after he had had it he would still
have it. It would be there. With a flick
of a switch, there it would be. But he
would not be in it. He would never be in it.
