David Naimon had an incredible conversation with Teju Cole on his podcast [Between the Covers]{https://tinhouse.com/transcript/between-the-covers-teju-cole-interview/}. I didn’t know anything about John Berger but he came up in the conversation in relation to photographs and a person’s gaze.

… it has to be this combination of intimacy—writing a letter to the dead for example—and reticence, moments of saying to my photo editor, “No, no, I can’t show you that, we can’t look at that, we can’t print that, because who is it for?”—Those who already know know and those who don’t know are only going to be entertained by it. And this is not a space for entertainment, this is a space for repair. — Teju Cole

This is a way of crystalizing my thoughts on all social media these days. I’ve deleted my Twitter and Instagram profiles in the last couple of months. I’ve been off of Facebook for more than a year. It is somewhat of a stage for the most performative and unnecessary information that puts the 15 minute long cart before the proverbial horse. Tiring just reading this stuff.

About Looking by John Berger @ Internet Archive