Just before casting my vote in the 2024 election in my hometown in South Carolina, I turned on Brandi Carlile's "The Joke" from her album By the Way I Forgive You, which was written in the aftermath of Donald Trump's 2016 win. I needed to listen to it before I went into the voting booth. Carlile's soaring vocals and poignant lyrics about hope in the face of persecution comforted me as I pulled into the parking lot of a former Walmart turned megachurch that served as my polling station. I parked my Subaru and cried, singing along between quiet sobs.
Perhaps a more uncontroversial and profound Turing test is the mystery of the absolute arbitrariness of what makes us happy. Looking over this year's list, patterns emerge-trips, new friends-but much more here inheres in the mundane, lowercase, sense-activating thinginess of life: walking through clouds of butterflies, eating candy alone, homemade stew, wearing pink glitter, cold clementines in a hot bath. Joy is not second-hand. Its unpredictability identifies us as precisely as our fingerprints.
Salgado's photography transcended mere documentation, acting as a bridge between the visible and invisible, and capturing humanity's collective essence and struggles over decades.
When discussing her indomitable spirit, Deborah Szekely noted, 'Optimism against all odds is how things get done in this topsy-turvy world,' which epitomizes her approach to life and philanthropy.
