We haven’t yet learned to care for these moments, haven’t learned how to keep them and how to treasure them.

Everything else, however, transpires much easier into the environment. The most newsworthy stories are those about war and death. The most artistic images and writings are those about darkness, loneliness, death or sadness.

Sure, the fact that this is so visible on places like DeviantArt where artists as well as wannabes cast their frustrations at each other is one thing. But when this manages to 100% take over some mainstream press awards, I think there’s reason to truly worry.

As the World Press Photo winners for 2011 are announced, an eerie feeling rises from the photos: nothing beautiful while the breathtaking sinks in tragedy. For those who wish to know but don’t want their minds tainted with tragic imagery, here’s a rundown:

- premier award: Jody Bieber, a well-known portrait of Bibi Aisha, the afghan girl who had her nose and ears cut off for running from her taleban husband. Photo taken before Aisha’s reconstructive surgery. The simple acknowledgement that this is so very real and not some disturbed artistic rendering is guaranteed to plant nightmares.

- 1st prize: hungarian Peter Lakatos snapshots the burning body of a suicidal man who jumps from a tower in Budapest after setting himself on fire. Even lacking vivid details, there is plenty to see and plenty to think about.

- 2nd prize: Daniel Moretti scores the first of a string of photos dedicated to the earthquake in Haiti – a wounded girl trapped under stones in Port-au-Prince

- 3rd prize: people are start to get hurt as the crowd throngs at the entrance to the fabled Love Parade in Germany

- Daniel Moretti scores again with a bleeding woman, minutes after the earthquake devastates Port-au-Prince. On the stories category, Moretti has a whole slideshow of the earthquake aftermath, with plenty of dead, wounded and maimed, which is sure to raise the same debate about taking pictures vs helping.

- Frenchman Colenting Fohlen unveils a set on the antigovernment protests in Thailand. Much the same as Moretti, but having man vs man instead of nature vs man.

- Alexandre Vieira documents a shoot-out on the streets of Rio (nothing new here, one could say) starting with two bleeding guys shooting at each other and ending with one of them having his skull bashed in under the boots of two other people and laying in a pool of blood.

- Guang Niu showcasts tibetan monks cremating hundreds of naked bodies of another earthquake’s victims.

- American Javier Manzano documents a string of drug-related murders, starting with a closeup of a severed head in Ciudad de Juarez and ending with a body half-eating by vultures

- cue to more deaths with photos of the aftermath of some targeted killing in Karachi (Pakistan – shudder thinking that I have a friend going back there), earthquake victims and involving one non-violent photo of Julian Assange (because, well, we like people showcasing death but not those telling us why death happens).

Isn’t it quite remarkable that some people still have time to love?