So much love and compassion
by John Berger.
Correspondencia entre John Berger y Adriana Lestido.
Dear Adriana,
I know of no other book like yours and I love it. And I’m proud – with my little quotation (!) – to be included in it.
What makes your book so inusual and mysterious is the nature of your (the photographer’s) presence. What we see happening – existing – is existing as though you weren’t there. Nobody gives the impression of beeing photographed. And yet, at the same time, each image has been chosen and gathered with so much love and compassion. You are absolutely there with what and who you are photographing, and you are absolutely not there!
It´s as though you use a time exposure but set, not for 30 seconds, but for eternity. And the eternal (as Spinoza tells us) is not everlasting but timeless. They are prophecies of what has already happened. And the lens is a curious kind of telepathy.
Thank you thank you
Abrazos fuertes,
John