My new assignment arrived while Dave Brubeck was playing “Take the A train”. My faithful companion brought me a piece of paper that said: “Initial”. In the life of a photographic investigator everything is interconnected and the course of the investigation -as well as it’s subject- are revealed by themselves without the necessity of thinking or wondering. The reason behind it always remains unsaid, though. But I am OK with it. Anyway, I knew that I had to replace the “A” with another letter and that that letter would be the initial of my subject’s first name. My intuition told me that was an
Read MoreMy new subject had just returned from Tanzania. While I was photographically investigating her, listening with great interest her accounts about the place and the people, Ralph Waldo Emerson came to my mind and something he wrote in his book “Self reliance”, which I recognised as an undeniable truth.
Read MoreMy new subject was powerful. She had the ability to transform herself into anything she wished to -organic or inorganic- and she could also transform others. Her power had it’s source in the unshakable conviction that as a daughter of a powerful king she could have all of her wishes fulfilled. And she had a preference in the art of transformation… A photographic investigator must be careful in situations like this one, where a wrong look or word could transform them into a cucumber or an umbrella… So I walked carefully into my new assignment, being alert and ready at any time to push the button of my inter-dimensional wrist watch.
Read MoreA photographic investigator knows that if you don’t project it in the screen of your mind, it isn’t there. So you don’t see it.
Read MoreA photographic investigator sooner or later realises that there is a distinction between the screen upon which a movie is projected and the movie itself. Many things happen in that movie and many feelings are evoked to the poor viewer, but the screen remain unchangeable. In times of pressure or general fear and anxiety, a photographic investigator always reminds herself: “Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists…”
Read MoreMy new subject was working in the Old Curiosity Coffee Shop and I should know what clues to look for, except… I never got to read Dickens’ book -I had it in my library though! So I knew that the environment, though very pleasant, wouldn’t help me to complete the photographic investigation. She was known as the “Cat Mistress” because she loved and protected cats -and she was equally loved and protected by them. Her totem animal was the Caracal, a beautiful wild cat species that could jump 3 meters in the air and catch birds! My totem is the black bird and we could obviously have a conflict of interests there, but what helped me approach her was the recent appearance of the jaguar as my spirit animal -a sort of special, temporary messenger. This way, the necessary compatibility was achieved and my photographic investigation started.
Read MoreAnother photographic investigation, another mystery with a code name… This time my subject was a renown spacecraft designer and the possessor of a classic greek beauty.
Read MoreThis photographic investigation would be better described as another unsuccessful attempt to prove that a weekend can actually be lost… Because nothing real can be lost and nothing unreal exists. Real or unreal, this I leave up to you…
Read MoreA photographic investigator knows that “wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace”. And so do her subjects. They all live and work in the four dimensional world, that in this photographic investigator’s reality is in Hilo, Hawaii. Both photographic investigator and subject constantly see miracles and wonders come to pass. (In Hawaii it’s a lot easier.) They interpret them differently, though. My clue for this photographic investigation was written in an old yellow, damaged paper. It was something that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote: “The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings”. I instantly knew in which Hilo coffee shop I should go.
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 arrived there by bus in the evening, just before sunset. The scenic route side by side with the setting sun was magical and that made the prospect of next day’s visit to the Maya ruins of Campeche even more wondrous… It wasn’t clear to me whether I would meet my subject in the mayan pyramids or in the hotel itself. The view was beautiful though and the smell of the sea compelled me to stay in the terrace. I found my subject when I went to the ground floor bar to ask for some coffee…
Read MoreIt was a beautiful day in Venice, I was investigating a beautiful woman and her transformations. A trained photographic investigator ends up -sooner or later- realising that beauty is an energy and not a concrete, tangible thing. But her presence cannot be denied once it is perceived. That is why, very often, the most successful investigations are the unexpected ones.
Read MoreIt was the day of the summer solstice and it was obvious that she was hiding. But not from me. My assignment was to investigate this beautiful woman who denied her divine nature for an obscure reason. She thought she was just a beautiful model but the way the garden embraced and protected her was more than eloquent to the contrary. it wasn't my job to reveal secret stories and I didn't try to.
Read MoreIt was one day before the opening of the Venice Biennale. Only journalists were allowed, so I used one of my fake identities. Not so fake really, since a photographic investigator's job is not so different from that of a journalist's. Anyway, she also pretended to be one. You come to know those things after 2-3 decades of pretending. But she made my work very easy and I was thankful to her not only for this, but for her beautiful smile as well. She knew she was being investigated, but she allowed it. I made a mental note to look her up. A very interesting partnership could be in the horizon.
Read MoreHer husband was rich and determined to be a film producer. He was a film noir lover and wanted her to be the star in the remake of a classic 1941 movie, "High Sierra", starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart. He also wanted to shoot the movie in an original location in the Sierra Nevada, the "snowy mountain range"... She loved those mountains. It was high and cold in High Sierra and it reminded her the time when she met the infamous "Mexican", a writer who became her closest friend. But that was all in the past... She indulged her husband because she secretly hoped that fate would bring him into her life once more. The Mexican was missing and he was always enchanted by the high, cold mountains of California.
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 MoreAnother Renaissance code name for another enigmatic and ethereal subject.
Read MoreI had 2 major assignments for the summer of 2017... Pink flamingos and beach vamps... I was lucky in both photographic investigations. You'll have to wait a little longer for the pink flamingo extravaganza though...
Read MoreAn experienced photographic investigator watches thoughts run free but never runs after them...
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