beautiful
...I must say I always have loved the "liberation point". The moment when the illusion collapses. Not only because it gives equally good investigative portraits, but because it's most promising: who knows? If one illusion collapses today, maybe another one, more important will collapse tomorrow. Something to meditate on…
Read MoreI was investigating the case of a pearl that was in the possession of a beautiful blonde girl. To buy this pearl one had to sell everything they had, to abandon everything they believed in. The task of the girl was to hand it over to it’s rightful owners. The pearl was one, but at the same there was an endless supply of them.
Read MoreA photographic investigator sooner or later realises that she creates her world by her inner conversations and that it is only what it is done now that it counts. Now is the accepted time. Even though it’s effects may not be visible until tomorrow. The events and relationships of her life are her word become visible. She changes the dream willingly, changing herself. So she changes the world.
Read MoreI was hired to photographically investigate another strange Venice creature, another dangerous subject. Her name was Medusa, she also belonged to the infamous secret circle of Il Mister (although not so secret anymore after my numerous investigations and revelations) and, what a surprise, I wasn't told (again) why she was dangerous or why she went by that name. Well, Medusa had the ability to turn men into stone with her gaze -if that as the clue that i was supposed to figure out- but I wasn't a man. And even if I were, well, it would be an interesting turn of events, to end up as a stone statue in one of the most beautiful courts of Venice. She looked at me. I don't think I turned into stone. But then again...
Read MoreThere was a mysterious gardener in Villa Herriot, in Venice. He appears in the mornings and talks to the few visitors of this magnificent place, but none of the residents is aware of his existence. He never appears in a company of more than 2 people and he always talks about the marvels of the garden and about other, mystical, hidden garden treasures in Venice. I saw him and I talked to him while passing through, but sadly, I didn't photograph him. When I talked to people of him, everyone looked at me like I was crazy... "Gardener? What gardener?", they said. I scheduled a photographic investigation in the Villa hoping to capture a shot of him. Of course he did not appear. My subject was beautiful and full of grace though... Her name was Ramona, and she had also seen the gardener. Maybe some gardeners can't be seen by everyone, I thought. Especially in Venice...
Read MoreI don't know when Chucho Valdez wrote Claudia, but I first heard it in Paquito d'Rivera's album, 'Reunion", with Arturo Sandoval. One of my first latin jazz albums and surely one of my favourites. But then, I always had a soft spot for boleros... When a photographic investigator is in between assignments, they like to experiment connecting people and faces to songs. This one was an instant match. And it served as well as a realisation that, sometimes, the best photographic investigations happen during a break...
Read MoreThat was the objective of yet another assignment, another photographic investigation. Once I found her and I completed my job, though, I realised I wasn't the only one looking for her. Of course once one realises that she is always hiding in plain sight, suddenly there is no need for looking. Anyway, she was here only temporarily, so I had to take advantage of that. I found out that she was heading to a place called Graceland and I decided to follow her there. This place is found in another reality and I didn't know if there was any energy left in me for all this. Time travel and reality crossing is exhausting, it depletes a photographic investigator's vital energy. One of these days I was about to complete my last mission, I knew that, maybe this one would be in Graceland, after all. More about that in the following blog post (if there is going to be one...).
Read MoreShe wasn't responsible for a war but I had to investigate her all the same... Another mysterious figure that was easier to locate than I thought... I just had to go to Troy, a great publishing house in Santiago, Chile. An experienced photographic investigator like me is always ready to defy jet lag and circadian circles to complete her mission. She was renown writer of fantasy novels and an exquisite cook. I had read the novels but never tried the food, so it was imperative that this investigation would be a close one. So I met her, befriended her, investigated her and, yes, I enjoyed her cooking. An delicious investigation, to say the least...
Read MoreTime travel leaves traces and disturbances in the universe - every time traveller, Doctor Who fan and intergalactic photographic investigator knows it. This is why you cannot travel in time too much too soon, because of the imminent danger that this universe -and maybe others- will implode... That is why caution is needed. I was trained to investigate people who leave time travel traces and this is my latest investigation on this subject...
Read MoreSometimes I just use film noir titles to name my photographic investigations... And Angel Face was a classic...
"It's not what you are looking at that matters, it's what you see" said David Henry Thoreau (I think he said it that way...) and I found myself agreeing with him every day. Especially while I was investigating a fellow photographic investigator who pretended to be an astrologer in order to investigate a spy who was posing as an astrology review publisher. She had an magazine editorial background so she knew her way into a publishing company. From the first moment her view (as well as her photographic evidence) was clouded by her past experiences working in magazines (which were very intense in a good and in a bad way). Are we really capable to look with eyes wide open what lies before us and see it clearly, without the cloud of prejudice, without fear of the repetition of past experiences and with good faith that we can deal with it, whatever it is, if we confront it with love? I was doing that with more or less success since I became a photographic investigator... Would I be able to do it if I were in her position, and had to go back to my old profession? I don't know... These are some of the questions that this investigation awakened in me... Will they ever be answered? As I was coming back home after my investigation yesterday, I "saw" me (or anyone else) in an old age, a little before dying, having all the answers I could get in that lifetime, talking to my younger self... "All that worrying was totally unnecessary, you know?..." I guess we all know that on a deeper level... To apply it in everyday life is the challenge.
Read MoreShe was a pilot and she had her own plane. She was a kind of a spy, like I am, but she liked to call herself an "aerial explorer" -the way I like to call myself a "photographic investigator". So there was a connection there... but I had to investigate her anyway. She undertook very special -and highly secretive- missions, flying mostly over North America. And that's when "the incident" happened... They call it "the incident" because nobody knows exactly what happened, but everybody knows that it had something to do with flying too high over Brooklyn in one of her missions. That's when her plane had a mysterious loss of power -it functioned with a special (and unknown) kind of drive- which forced her to make an emergency landing in Anchorage, Alaska. I met her on a greek island, 6 months after "the incident". I was to find out what the incident was and was she was doing in Greece. But all you have to do is look at my photographic investigation shots...
Read MoreThe oracle was consulted because the situation was unclear. In cases like this an experienced photographic investigator asks help from her Higher Self through her favourite divinatory method. This time for me it was the I-Ching. The hexagram 31 it was then: "The Influence of the Strong Over the Weak". "All success in human relationships depends upon the proper attraction between persons. The leader is attracted to his followers and the followers are attracted to the leader. The strong are attracted to the weak and the weak are attracted to the strong". And the maxim: "When seeking advice, a person must remain open-minded and receptive". Suddenly it was all very clear.
Read MoreAnother of Nicoletta's magical garments... It was a real genie... A helper that granted wishes. How many, only the lucky ones who wear it can say...
Read MoreNicoletta was a magical being. She created enchanted garments in a little shop in Campo S. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Her creations were famous for the special attributes they gave to the one who wore them, so I was hired to investigate 4 of her most powerful corsets. First, the Black Corset. Probably the most impressive one. It's secret, and greatest power, was that it could hide the halo that surrounds exceptional, spiritual beings from clairvoyant agents that worked for... (let's put it this way)... darker forces. It was a protection, a magical armour for ethereal presences. And it worked perfectly. Nicoletta used Luana, a beautiful fairy, to model her corsets and make sure that they served their purpose. And I was the witness.
Read MoreLife is a good mexican telenovela. I know, because I love them. So I can't help but noticing that it is based on the same fundamental rules: 1. truth always reveals itself 2. nobody is absolutely without a heart 3. desires come true but are never what you expected them to be 4. obsessions drain your energy so that you will almost certainly need a plastic surgery before the telenovela ends (if it's a long one) 5. beauty opens all the doors 6. in the end, balance is restored 7. it's not real, it's just actors, costumes, a play and a director. Having shared this revelation with you, I'll go back watching Ramona, a great mexican telenovela from the late 90's starring Eduardo Palomo (R.I.P. our beloved Eduardo…). Even the most impartial and dedicated to observation photographic investigator has her soft spots… (Another telenovela characteristic: even though you are just a watcher, you feel affection for the characters. Ramona makes me cry.)
Read More...I must say I always have loved the "liberation point". The moment when the illusion collapses. Not only because it gives equally good investigative portraits, but because it's most promising: who knows? If one illusion collapses today, maybe another one, more important will collapse tomorrow. Something to meditate on…
Read MoreSometimes a photographic investigator realises that all their assignments, all their investigations and all their subjects are not "real"… they are just movements, actions, thoughts and characters in a dream. We do we continue to investigate then? I will try to answer this to another post.
Read More“The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.” I am just quoting Raymond Chandler in "The long goodbye". I was in Ipanema again and the girl was saying goodbye. She was not originally my subject but she became one of the best ones, I must say… She will be missed.
This was the password phrase. I was investigating "The woman without a face", a notorious and mysterious ufologist and ancient civilisations specialist who had recently made a groundbreaking discovery… She was hiding in Plain Sight, a coffee shop that everybody could see but only the password would get you in. It was a 4 shots investigation and I can say one thing with certainty: she had beautiful hands.
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