“Whoever does not like exaggeration should avoid the ocean. Middling imaginations fare poorly faced with its expanse. The ocean voids all symmetries… With its excess of clouds, breezes, seafoam, caprice and freedom, the ocean exhibits a perpetual disrespect for order.” We are far from normal photography. These lines concern poets more than masons, a concept so often mistaken for the real. So let’s make mistakes, there will always be something left… The words in quotation marks were written by Victor Hugo. There are so many photos. I love this profusion. This week, a new conflict. We might have thought that things were going better in this part of the world, but Burmese Muslims and Buddhists are clashing. Syria, for far too long, has been piling up innocent bodies, still dripping with Russian and Chinese leaders’ tears of joy. In Sudan, everything’s peachy: the food is getting better and the real estate investors—no, that’s not what’s happening, as Dominique Nar shows us what the real story is in the Sunday Times Magazine: 3.4 million dead give or take—but so what? The Chinese need their oil, and you can’t scoop it up with chopsticks. Well, let’s get back to old sweet Europe. Angela ‘The Valkyrie’ Merkel has decided that Greece must die—no, not the Greek state, but the Greeks themselves, and all the lazy bums in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Europeans, listen up: from now on you’re going to drive Mercedes, burp up Frankfurt sausages—mit einem großen bier!—wear lederhosen and think liberally. We’ll have a grand old time. For us here in France the vaudeville continues, and it all started with a photo and it goes on with a certain chilling je ne sais quoi. Have a nice weekend.
Michel Philippot
