Photography in Omelas
Last year, I went into the DC Metro proper to take photos of the Cherry Blossoms. It wasn't exactly peak bloom, so my shots were hit or miss, but I got some good pictures. Some of the non-blossom photos I got were especially nice. But I felt a really deep, penetrative sadness. The Biden era was clearly coming to an end one way or another, and the future was really scary. Obviously I was right to be concerned, in retrospect.
It's infuriating, really, because - well, look at the title of the website. I was in the heart of the imperial core of a lot, a lot, a lot of suffering. Natural beauty and nice people can appear anywhere, is the frustrating thing. I wondered a lot if anyone else sightseeing was thinking about these things. Plenty likely that some people were -excited- about likely futures even while fondly regarding a tree that could only be here through human partnership, having traveled across the planet to a new climate.
These pictures aren't from last year. I thought - well, damn the material reality, I'm not going to not enjoy outside just because everything is ending. But I knew I couldn't be by myself this year or it would be even more morose. As with many things, the antidote is community. I had a nice outing with good friends and we took excellent photos. In the end, it ended up being very refreshing. There's not much point in trying to solder on through all of this if there aren't good things to save or protect or enjoy now or, god forbid, memorialize when we get out the other side.
And there is. "Pax Americana", as certain fascinating individuals call it, casts a long shadow over the many, many, many people harmed by it. The American empire does many awful harms in our name as citizens, and we receive table scraps of the fruits of that misery. Despite this unjust and absurd world we live in, many beautiful things exist, nourished by ordinary people. Often this is in spite of the so-called prosperity we've lived under in the capitalist era. I hope one day I can live in a world where all of us can enjoy it in an uncomplicated way instead of having to do amateur philosophy.
