【推荐2】Two years ago, photographer Gen started his latest project visiting local communities in Latin America. The photo that gave birth to his “You are so beautiful” project was entirely unplanned.

In January 2015, Gen was in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico. He had been trying to get his female subject to feel more comfortable before his camera, and when a request for her to smile didn’t quite work, he found himself telling her she was beautiful. The result of his shot was so sincere and heartwarming that he decided he had found the concept of his new project. Gen is still on his journey to capture the power of this compliment (赞美). The photos he’s already published on his website, however, show the unbelievable effect these simple words can have.

When asked to have her photo taken, Mathilda from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, said, “I don’t have any teeth. Please don’t make me laugh.” After being told she was beautiful, she didn’t seem to mind anymore. “She and I laughed a lot. It was a nice moment.” Gen said.

Margarita was selling fruit on a street in Otavalo, Ecuador, when Gen approached her. She agreed to pose for a picture after the photographer bought some of her fruit, but still didn’t smile when he asked her to. Her smile was genuine, though, when she heard the compliment.

Gen met Juliana in a village in northern Colombia where desert meets the Caribbean Sea. The region is extremely dry, with some months seeing almost no rain, and Juliana wore a mask to protect her face from the sun. She was selling handicrafts when Gen approached her, and smiled happily when she received the compliment.

Mimba and baby Maya are from Brazil’s Marubo tribe. Mimba was shy, and it was only on the second visit to her home that the photographer finally got her permission to take her photo. She seemed to relax, though, when he paid her a compliment.

【推荐3】I’ve come back to check on a baby. Just after dusk I'm in a car down a muddy road in the rain, past rows of shackled(戴镣的) elephants， their trunks swinging. I was here five hours before， when the sun was high and hot and tourists were on elephants’ backs.

Walking now, I can barely see the path in the glow of my phone's flashlight. When the wooden fence post stops me short, I point my light down and follow a current of rainwater across the concrete floor until it washes up against three large, gray feet. A fourth foot twisted above the surface, tied tightly by a short chain and choked by ring of metal spikes(尖刺) When the elephant tires and puts her foot down， the spikes press deeper into her ankle.

Meena is four years and two months old, still a child as elephants go. Khammon Kongkhaw, her caretaker, told me earlier that Meena wears the spiked chain because she tends to kick. Kongkhaw has been responsible for Meena here at Maetaman Elephant Adventure, near Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, since she was 11 months old. He said he keeps her on the spiked chain only during the day and takes it off at night. But it’s night now.

I ask Jin Laoshen, the Maetaman worker accompany in me on this nighttime visit, why her chain is still on. He says he doesn’t know.

Mactaman is one of many animal attractions in and around tourist-crowded Chiang Mai. Meena'slife is set to follow the same track as many of the roughly3，800 captive(被捕获的) elephants in Thailand. When Meena is too old or sick to give rides-maybe at 55, maybe at 75she’ll die. If she's lucky, she’ll get a few years of retirement. She'll spend most of her life on a chain.

【推荐1】When Ariel Cordova-Rojas rode her bike to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, New York, last November, she planned to go hiking and bird-watching. Bingo! A mile into her walk, she spotted a gorgeous female mute swan near the water’s edge. Cordova-Rojas, 30, who had worked at the Wild Bird Fund rehabilitation (康复) center in Manhattan, knew that mute swans can be aggressive. But as she approached this one, it didn’t move.

She was certain that the bird needed medical attention. Cordova-Rojas draped her jacket over the bird’s head to keep it calm, carefully picked it up, and held it in her arms. And then a thought struck her: What do I do now?

Her best bet was the rehab center, but that was across the East River and clear on the other side of town. How was she going to transport a 17-pound swan on her bike all that way? Luckily, some bemused strangers driving by offered her, her bike, and the swan a lift to a nearby subway station.

On the subway, no one seemed particularly annoyed by the feathered passenger. “One guy”, says Cordova-Rojas, “was sitting right in front of me on his phone. I don’t know if he noticed there was a swan in front of him.”

Cordova-Rojas called the rehab center on the way, and Tristan Higgin, an animal-care manager, picked her up at the subway station and drove bird, bike, and rescuer to the facility. There, staff members determined that the swan might have lead poisoning, caused by swallowing weights used on fishing lines.

The staff got the swan back up on her webbed feet. She even made a boyfriend at the center — another injured swan. Sadly, even with all that TLC, the swan contracted a bacterial infection. Two months after Cordova-Rojas came to her rescue, she passed away.

It’s a disappointing ending, but the real story is just how far some people are willing to go to save a swan in the big city — literally. “In all, Cordova-Rojas traveled two hours by foot, car, and subway,” says Higginbotham, “That’s the perfect summary of who she is.”