The clue about my new subject came with the wind. It was expected through the mail, but after an unprecedented explosion in the post office -a product of overwhelming anticipation for the upcoming Chinese New Year, the year of the Dragon- the wind took over the deliveries that the fire failed to eliminate. Only a small piece of half burned paper had survived, with the words: “Eyes with neither artifice nor evasion”. It was one of the more clear clues that I had received for a long time. I knew exactly where to find this amazing subject. The Year of the Dragon was approaching promising not to disappoint…
Read MoreMy subject was witness to a miraculous manifestation. And although the words “manifestation” and “law of attraction” are very widely used and invoked today, very few people actually believe that they work -this is probably why they prefer giving endless lectures about it. But some people can do it, and those people prefer keeping it a secret. So when I was hired to investigate an actual witness to a magical appearance of a mansion -the way Aladin’s lantern would do it- I knew that my subject was on the run and that the time I had was limited…
Read MoreI was about to watch a 1929 classic black and white film called “The locked door”, starring Barbara Stanwyck, when someone slipped a handwritten note under my door -that was also locked… My mysterious employers had not given me any sign of life for the last two years and I was worried that our secret operations had been revealed to the wrong people. I was in no danger, of course, but I had missed my secret assignments. My faithful helpers, Juanita and Lupe were begging me for some action. I guess cat’s wishes are more rapidly answered… The note provided me with clues about a beautiful, wealthy young woman, which I was supposed to photographically investigate immediately, as she was about to return to Crete -for some nefarious business, I am sure. It was easy. She was suspicious at first, but then, my ability to open locked doors was the one that had made me famous in my field.
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 MoreSometimes a photographic investigator tests herself just to see if former subjects would produce the same insights in the present. They don’t of course… Something new, something exiting is always around the corner. This is a promise that can’t be broken.
Read MoreThe clue for this photographic investigation was “The van”. Fortunately, an experienced photographic investigator is used to think out of the box and rarely takes her clues literally. It was very easy to locate the miniature van and photographically investigate the subject behind it. Not that I am complaining, but sometimes I think that my mysterious -but very generous- employers need to challenge me a little more…
Read MoreThis was the code name for an urgent, after midnight photographic investigation of Zenobia, in colour. I have been known to accept the challenge of a colour assignment under conditions that cloud my judgement, like that heat wave that tormented Athens for over a week. I didn’t like it, but a photographic investigator never goes back on an engagement, so I reluctantly finished the investigation. Once again, I swore it was the last time…
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 MoreFrom Crete to Naxos, from Theseus to Dionysus, from mortality to immortality… My assignment was to follow the “mitos” (thread) of Ariadne, my new subject, out of the center of the labyrinth after the discovery of the great secret. Why would I want to return, some may ask. It’s simple. I was engaged to undertake several more photographic investigations before I departed from this dimension. And a photographic investigator never falls back on her commitments.
Read MoreThe code name for this assignment was “Magnificat” (My soul magnifies the Lord). Immediately the reality of something that Lester Levenson pointed out struck me: that when you dive into the very core of a feeling, you will observe that nothing is really there. Like looking at a magnified object. The more magnified it is, the less detectable it is. My subject was a heiress experiencing an intense feeling of unease and dissatisfaction about the fact that she had to pursue studies in theology in order to receive the 24 billion dollars that were hers… A photographic investigator must let her subjects realise the truth on their own, though.
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 MoreA photographic investigator realises that all questions are wrong questions. Except one: “Who Am I”?
Read MoreA forgotten photographic investigation of a fellow photographer, Maria, during a hot August day in the museum of the Acropolis, which I always find most inspiring for portraits of interesting people. The secret? A magical grey wall that acts as a black hole for everything else except the emotional depth of my subject. Not anybody can be photographically investigated there…
Read MoreLeonardo’s “Mona Lisa” wasn’t the portrait of Mona Lisa Gherardini, wive of Francesco del Giocondo. It was a portrait of Leonardo’s mother. And it was the only painting that Leonardo always carried with him, wherever he went. Of course, this is just another theory (although supported by the actual historic evidence) as only Leonardo knew the truth. But in the case of the modern portrait of Mona Lisa with the sunglasses, the model was alive and could be found. That was my new assignment. And I have managed to photographically investigate her without arising suspicions. Like all of us, she was closer to her original self that she could ever have imagined…
Read MoreThe morning just after another month of lockdown was announced, way before sunrise. Away from my subjects and without assignments, I was looking at older photographic investigations that I thought not successful. Suddenly, I found myself struggling to comprehend the expression “not successful”. Maybe they were investigations that I felt uncomfortable with, that I thought that they would not be well received -”by whom?'“, I asked myself. Or photographic investigations that I simply didn’t like or that possibly generated an unease, a discomfort in me. Just like I sometimes feel when I am confronting myself, at times of peace and silence such as these. When I am seeing my human condition. The human condition. Photographic investigations are really parts of the photographic investigator’s self, of her condition. Usually she is running away from some part of them, she is keeping them unpublished, she resents them, she puts them in the recycling bin. But the recycling bin recycles, it does not release or dissolve. This beautiful, peaceful morning, before sunlight made this bright star in the east disappear, I just looked at them and accepted them for what they were: a part of the human condition. Just that. And I realised that acceptance was working much better than struggle. And then I saw something vibrant, silent, beautiful and perfect. As is the canvas in which all photographic investigations are taking place.
Read MoreMy latest assignment was a girl-wonder named Natalia, the daughter of a well investigated subject of mine, Nadia. She was the protagonist of many of my previous photographic investigations like “The girl from Ipanema”, “The long good bye”, “The fantastic smile method” and a few others… Nadia was back and along came the amazing child who made it clear, only a few moments into our first encounter, that she was a photographic investigator herself. I immediately foresaw many more fruitful photographic encounters. Who would be photographically investigating who now, is a whole new subject by itself.
Read MoreI was investigating a classic type of entanglement: things that were happening in February suddenly appeared to be announced in a poster of last year’s October. My subjects thought that it was a mistake because they thought that nothing moves faster than the speed of light. Although quantum physics is an essential part of a photographic investigator’s life (especially an inter-dimensional one), it’s knowledge is not mandatory requirement in being qualified as a potential subject. Thank God.
Read MoreSometimes a photographic investigation takes place in the past but becomes what it is in the present. Which, of course, is all there is. In this case, the present was dominated by frustration and an urgent and desperate need for escape, which of course was a helpless situation - every form of restriction is an illusion and how can you escape an illusion that you have created? Especially when it contains horrific memories of the past and the fear that it is repeating itself… It’s a vicious circle really. In that context, trying to figure out what this photographic investigation was all about, I started browsing “The wisdom of insecurity” by Alan Watts. And the following passage made me stop. And all the desperation and need to escape just collapsed into their native nothingness: “…as a matter of fact, you cannot compare this present experience with a past experience. You can only compare it with a memory of the past, which is a part of the present experience. When you see clearly that memory is a form of present experience, it will be obvious that trying to separate yourself from this experience is as impossible as trying to make your teeth bite themselves. […]To understand this is to realize that life is entirely momentary, that there is neither permanence nor security, and that there is no “I” which can be protected”.
Read MoreIn almost half of my photographic investigations my subjects have to be hunted down, trapped or deceived even, in order to reveal the secret that my mysterious employers hire me to unveil. And as you know, most of the times that secret is unknown to me and I have to work following clues and hints. So, every assignment is in a way, the shooting of a film noir, following an improvised scenario that me and my subjects write and direct on the spot. But in the great majority of the cases the subjects are clearly in a “fight or flight” mode, so there is action and suspense as I try to “convince” them -with great subtlety, of course- to get into a “stay and play” mode. This photographic investigation was different though, in more than one ways. The one you are allowed to know is that this subject was a chameleon -as you will see in my following posts- , she knew I was investigating her and she had no fear. her natural state was already :stay and play”. Undoubtedly, a challenge for a photographic investigator like me… But them, I can handle anything…
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