Time is an Artist: Photographs and Text

It is difficult for me to get past the first picture of the old temple in Cambodia, taken by Walter Kaufmann in 1963, at the beginning of this book. The day has its hours and minutes, but Cambodia has its years. It has been 31 years since I was in Cambodia, and the artistic possibilities of that much time don't apply in abstract ways, like taking that many years away from being funny. Most of the pictures in this book try to find something to praise in old things, including mummies, and the "old is beautiful" theme seemed perfectly appropriate for a philosophy which was so wrapped up in living. I didn't think this book was as deep as some that I have read. I can't imagine what would ever make a book like this popular, but that hasn't usually been my concern. If I tried to produce a philosophy of time that could encompass the confusion which the really famous philosophers of the 20th century produced on that subject, I would only be misleading the readers of this review about the nature of this book. This is just a study in time appreciation, like an ecologist might like trees and animals. Barely literate scholars might assume they are studying philosophy when they read this book, but I'm not going to say anything that would make it seem at a lower level than what it is. This is a picture book by someone who appreciated poetry and philosophy, had great taste in literature, but was trying to communicate with people who had no sense of greatness. Or maybe I'm missing something because I didn't notice anything heroic.