November was surprisingly warm, more like the end of April… But people are never satisfied, so it was also surprisingly blue, as if everyone was expecting the cold to blame for their misery and misfortunes… So blue it was… And since November was so disappointing, suddenly, there was a Christmas yearning and everyone was starting to think about nice things they could do for one another… presents, phone calls, invitations, bottles of wine, encouragements, kind words, friendships restored. And all this because nothing bad ever comes from blue…
Agent Cooper (you know, in Twin Peaks) liked his coffee "black like midnight on a moonless night". In my photographic investigations I have discovered that the blacker the coffee, the stronger it's meditative power… It's one of the great mysteries of coffee and photography. For me it is easier to investigate my subjects drinking coffee, so I notice these things… Hopefully the fellow photographic investigator of the future will find my observations useful.
Sometimes 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.
The Vappa Light is essential to space and especially, time travel. It is the only known -to a very few, I assure you- way to cross great distances, not only interstellar and inter dimensional, but also emotional and psychic, in both space and time, without serious consequences. Not very serious anyway… Because time travel has always some consequences. The Vappa Light Drive has it's own will and only when it agrees with the will and the intentions of it's "user" something can happen. It can be approached in a few very distinct and very mystical places around the world and fate has led me to one of it's sources, following a tip about a job. It was a routine photographic investigation, but, what I did not know at the time was that I would be given the opportunity to "catch" my subject moments before a Vappa Light trip would take place. In the shots you can see the traveller girl bathing in it. A few moments later she disappeared.
“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.
She was known by the name of Penthesilea, the tragic, beautiful and heroic queen of the Amazons. Achilleas fell in love with her after he killed her in the Trojan War… The Roman poet Vergil wrote of her: "The ferocious Penthesilea, gold belt fastened beneath her exposed breast, leads her battle-lines of Amazons with their crescent light-shields… a warriors, a maiden who dares to fight with men". And he called her "Bellatrix". I investigated her in 4 shots. An Amazon Queen would'nt allow me more than this, anyway…
You find your subject in a coffee house, drinking coffee, smoking, talking about their plans, their dreams, their hopes, their fears, looking ahead towards their "life", what they think their life will or should be… Meanwhile, this life is right there, in that coffee house, with you, in a place they don't even "see". That gives a photographic investigator something to think about…
She was known to the photographic investigators circles as "La Gioconda" because the man who was obsessively chasing her was convinced that she had a relation to the famous Leonardo's model… Of course his conviction was well established after years of investigations and the study of numerous family trees… I came much later to the case and my job was to take several shots of her while she was hanging around with friends in Europe. If you've asked me, I would definitely say that she had a resemblance with the most mysterious and intriguing female portrait in history. And there was also something else about her… She had a "symmetry" in all of her existence. The way she moved, the way she was standing, the way she was smoking. Her secret was well hidden under a "girl next door" attitude. But I knew. Did she? My employer never said…
Before Two becomes One (look at previous post), there are times, when you walk along a street, that you can catch with the corner of your eye a One that becomes Two. The important thing to remember is that you can see it only with the corner of your eye, because this action is the beginning of much trouble - and in life we can catch these decisive moments only when we are not looking straight at them.
She belonged in one of the most infamous secret societies of Venice. According to my well informed connections she occupied a key role in the "Mister's" circle, a group of enigmatic, mysterious individuals that roamed about this beautiful city, keeping their purpose well hidden. Of course I knew who they were and what they were doing. But to find out, I had to take the most sacred vow of secrecy that exists in my profession, not to mention that one word slipping from my mouth would fatally compromise Juanita and Lupe, my most valuable assistants. The "Mister" was not kidding…
There is much and at the same time nothing at all to be said about the power of the facial expressions. For the photographic investigator, it's a full time job. For the lover of the human experience and human nature, a challenge. And for some, a powerful tool. The latter ones are usually the subjects of my investigations…
During my photographic investigations I came to the conclusion that the easiest way to get a fantastic smile is to get very close. Because a fantastic smile is one that cannot be helped and therefore cannot be faked. I would advise, though, my fellow photographic investigators to use their intuition before getting too close. Because what in one person could trigger a smile, in another one could trigger a reflex movement of an arm or leg due to the fear of being forced to give a fantastic smile. And this could have catastrophic consequences on a PI's camera.
When an iconic photograph of a famous, but relatively newly discovered photographer disappeared from Momma, New York's top art curators knew for the first time what real panic felt like. I was sensing their fear. I could feel it in my bones. I admit it felt kinda nice… I knew it was a matter of time before the phone rang. And it did, later that night. The Italian connection was on. Of course, I have suspected that too… The only woman -the only person to be more accurate- in the western world that could retrieve a lost art treasure in less than 48 hours, was coming to Athens. It was believed that the photograph was there. I was hired -as I usually am- to follow her and document her work, without her knowing who I really was… What else was knew? Was I working for Momma? Was I working for the smugglers? You will never know.
