Nietzsche, in On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense:
Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing.
well, light bursts from the sun and travels a tad under ninety-three million miles before She comes into contact with our blue dot. after that endless night, the light bounces off of the grins of my friends, the faces of mountains, the surfaces of water. after the bounce, the knowing-invention of man (the camera) steals that light. within four corners and four edges, we can get close to being immortal.
when I take a photograph of a friend or a moment, I feel like I’ve cheated God.
so when I find photographs in thrift stores or in flea markets, photographs from years ago, I’m sad. the clever beasts in these photographs, whether dead or alive, have lost a treasure. as the years roll, the stolen light in these images still exists but it has lost its story.
a resurrection, a recycling, is in order —