I’ve been tagged by Martin.

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

The nearest book right now is Photography in Print, and p123 is an excerpt from Charles Baudelaire’s “The Salon of 1859″. The sentences are ambiguous, but I think this is reasonable:

In matters of painting and sculpture, the present-day Credo of the sophisticated, above all in France (and I do not think that anyone at all would date to state the contrary), is this: “I believe in Nature, and I believe only in Nature (there are good reasons for that). I believe that Art is, and cannot be other than, the exact reproduction of Nature (a timid and dissident sect would wish to exclude the more repellent objects of nature, such as skeletons or chamber-pots). Thus an industry that could give us a result identical to Nature would be the absolute of art”. A revengeful God has given ear to the prayers of this multitude. Daguerre was his Messiah.

Insufferable man.

Tagging (only if they’re interested, of course): Lil, Paul, Abi, Skuds…um.