PDN: You have a picture at one of the balls that looks like it has at least a hundred people holding up cameras to take pictures. What do you think about that?
EE: Everybody and their uncle has a camera. Everybody’s taking pictures. Even on the stand during the inauguration, people were taking pictures. It’s really extraordinary. No event goes uncovered.
PDN: There’s a lot of ways to read that development. Do you think that’s a positive thing, or do you think people maybe ought to live the moment a little more, and spend less time documenting it?
EE: I think there’s a bit more than necessary of people playing with their little instruments, but I don’t know. With regard to the event, you can’t help that. You just want to know that you were there. It’s kind of proof that you exist almost. So from that point of view I think it’s fine.
My mother died around 1am today. In the last year, I didn’t take pictures of her as she changed totally in appearance, becoming someone I hardly recognized (or, for that matter someone who had difficulty recognizing me). I have always felt that taking pictures helps make things real—I didn’t want this to be real. I didn’t want to take any pictures. But it happened.
