For some, photography is a tool to depict news, another pencil, or keyboard. With a 1,000 words per image, it is quickly said, explained and then forgotten. So, in order to remain on top of the news, images become more spectacular, more gruesome. The more the blood, fires, destruction, the better. After all, if you get a reaction, any kind of reaction, even if it is disgust, it must be right. And for most people, if they get a good jolt in their otherwise boring reality, it's good enough. It's all about sensations. Those that we crave and those that we avoid.
For others, however, the story is not in the shocking details but in the perception. Not the image they show but the impression they leave. It is - like the silences in Bach's music- in the the lingering memory that haunts us the rest of the day. It is in those images that stick with you like a melody that will not go away. It forces you to see it again and again. Not so much because you were brought to repulsion but rather because you were forced to think. With compassion. And , instead of pushing you out in order to avoid another view, those photographs pull you in via empathy. You were, for an instant, there. You not only saw it but you experienced it.
Some of the image this week seem to be far from the screaming headlines of our newspapers. In fact, they couldn't be closer. They tell us more about who we are and what we care about than any front line photograph. They help us understand more about ourselves then some dramatic image of endless war. These are some of the images that decide to trot along our side, making us endlessly aware that beyond a photograph, there is always a story to understand.

Paul Melcher