End of The Story

A street photographer opens a window to a world without narrative.

When photographer Mark Portillo said this about 18 minutes into a recent episode of the YouTube series Walkie Talkie, I thought: This guy is the voice of a generation. Maybe several generations. His simple declaration — “narrative is the problem” — explains many of the political and social convulsions currently tormenting us all.

Walkie Talkie is a video series featuring interviews with street photographers as they prowl the sidewalks of New York City and practice their craft. I’ve watched quite a few episodes, and Mark Portillo’s was the most engaging, illuminating, and disheartening. But don’t panic: By the end of the video, I found the proverbial Ray of Hope.

“A really weird thing to say…”

It’s worth watching one short segment, less than two minutes long, to hear Mark’s words in his own voice:

We now live in a brave new world teeming with Mark Portillos — young people whose visions and inspiration are rooted not in memory but in the moment; not in history, but in Right Now; not in a multi-generational narrative that gradually creates meaning and purpose, but in an instant experience or random encounter that evokes a feeling, a vibe, an emotion.

Or, in the vernacular of old codgers everywhere: TikTok, Instagram, and similar dopamine dealers will be the end of us all.

Our current lens has a dangerously shallow depth of field

Since October 7th, the Jewish community can’t stop talking about the global rise of anti-Semitism. Why do they hate us? It’s 1930s Germany, all over again. The vilification of the Jews is a virus that mutates… And so on. But this sort of analysis misses the more significant shift highlighted by Mark Portillo: “Narrative is the problem.”

You want to discuss the massacre on October 7th? Or the two Intifadas? Or the Six-Day War? Or the Nakba? Or the Balfour Declaration? Or the Roman occupation and the destruction of the Second Temple? Yawn. That’s the past. It’s gone. Done. No one cares. History is a story that requires too much bandwidth. It’s excess baggage. If the past really matters, I can ChatGPT it. So stop obsessing about what was. Live in the moment. Be here now.

For the People of The Book — a Book rooted in Story — this marginalization of narrative is both a cultural challenge and an existential threat.

Do you know who truly grasped this shift in thinking and then figured out how it could be weaponized? Yahya Sinwar (1962-2024), the Hamas architect of the October 7th massacre. He understood that people no longer can pay attention. We don’t read books. We have little interest in the past. October 7th would be ancient history by the time October 15th rolled around.

Sinwar knew that one day we would see these grisly photographs from Gaza (below), and we would feel deeply but remember nothing. We wouldn’t analyze the war and search for root causes; we’d simply experience the moment — and emote.

“I HAVE FEELINGS: THIS IS EVIL! » WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY?”

I hasten to add that photographer Mark Portillo seems like a caring, engaged, and deeply humane guy. He’s a talented photographer, too.

But without a shared Story, a communal “master narrative” and a common inheritance, things fall apart — for Jews (and Israel)… for Americans… for England and France and Germany… and for Western Civilization, one of the greatest stories ever told.

The Amish to the rescue

I don’t want to end on a downer, so here’s the aforementioned Ray of Hope….

In that Walkie Talkie video (above), Mark Portillo reveals that for years he has been photographing an Amish community in upstate New York.

Photographs by Mark Portillo

Keep shooting, Mark. And keep asking questions. The Amish have a fascinating and transformative Story to share with you.

The only caveat: Anabaptists like the Amish can tell you that Story, but you can’t take a picture of it.