Mister Minimal had a whole chapter for himself in my photographic investigations' book... Elusive, mysterious, a published photographer, very rich and very loved, he was called by many "The King of Venice". He was also one of my favourite subjects and a very lucky man. Let's face it: being investigates 3-4 times a year by a photographic investigator as myself is a rare thing! Mister Minimal always knows when he is being investigated but never shows it. That's one of the things that make him a great subject. As well as the fact that he likes to walk ahead of everybody, preferably in empty narrow streets, so his minimalism is easy to capture. Mister Minimal's photographic style is a projection of his true self. Beautiful minimal black and white empty spaces that suggest a welcoming heart, an unprejudiced mind and an openness of spirit. And although my sources tell me that from time to time he is letting the troubles of his earthly existence carry him in the crowded frames of worry and fear, I can always see him walking the sunlit path of great, pure, yet elusive, minimalism...
Weekends are sometimes made of unmade beds, messy kitchens, realising that the things you forgot to put in the supermarket list were the most important after all, and one or two cats running up and down, providing that "je ne sais quoi" quality that would turn a fairly manageable situation into a complete chaos... meet Juanita Romero Vargas Stergio, one of my two faithful helpers in the photographic investigation business...
She 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...
Investigating a woman in extremely noir circumstances... Brought to mind "Dark Passage", starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacaull... for obvious reasons to a film noir lover...
There may be trouble ahead But while there's music and moonlight and love and romance Let's face the music and dance
Before the fiddlers have fled Before they ask us to pay the bill and while we still have the chance Let's face the music and dance
Soon we'll be without the moon, humming a different tune and then There may be teardrops to shed So while there's moonlight and music and love and romance Let's face the music and dance
I was investigating a telenovela producer who had an unusual vision: create a telenovela without intrigues, without passions and lies and without suspense. He had decided that her series would be about loving friends and their encounters at work, having coffee, smoking, talking about their cats and writing philosophy articles... No desperate love affairs, no cheating, no crimes... All I had to do was follow the actors. The name of the telenovela would be "Amigas" and these shots are from the coffee breaks... And they were many...
Time 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...
"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.
She was Mister Minimal's cousin. According to an oracle, she would become very rich one day, but she didn't know that. I did, of course. I was investigating her, a subject who was very lucky, but thought of herself as unlucky. The result was overwhelmingly... minimal. She was known as Mis (not Miss) Minimal and it was her who taught Mister Minimal all about being minimal... The only thing about her that wasn't minimal was her future fortune... but that was in a different timeline.
Sometimes everything flows. Unobstructed, smoothly like a warm August breeze that fills a house with all the windows open. Like a friendly presence caressing you, like a friendly fairy that makes the wind chimes sing. Investigating these subjects brought that sensation to my mind, which I very often feel in my home. Just flow.
Secret meetings very often take place in museums and that's why those are ideal places to meet photographic investigators like me... This time it was the Acropolis Museum in Athens and it was me who was being stalked... And I am saying "stalked" because to be investigated demands a lot more skills than the guy who was following me possessed. Stalkers and wannabe "investigators" of photographic investigators make me feel sorry for them... a feeling of decadence fills my heart and instead of running away, I indulge them. I could never see as an equal a person who would want to investigate me... so I let them have what they want, knowing they will get nothing in the end. In that context, I was wandering in this beautiful museum of minimalistic architecture and I didn't mind at all pretending to be a tourist.... it was a hot noon in Athens and inside it was wonderfully cool.
And the living is easy... The leaving from Athens as well... I wasn't really investigating... Just enjoying that magical dreamy atmosphere, very characteristic of August... People getting ready for their summer vacation, other just coming back and others just dropping by before their next destination... Exchange of dreams, show of tan lines, friendly massages, bronzed legs, laughter, anticipation, the hope of the best holiday ever, impossible mathematic calculations in order to make money last... Just the old plain summer magic...
She 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...
The 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.
It was June, I was in between jobs and a big ship was entering the laguna... Residents of the Hilton Molino Stucky were waiting for the Alilaguna shuttle to the airport, a couple of tourists was resting on a bench and what looked like a lonely man was passing by... Typical Giudecca afternoon... lots of things to investigate...
A very short photographic investigation about a mysterious guard in the Gran Scuola di Santa Maria della Misericordia in Venice that just disappeared into thin air. A routine job for me... So many vanishing subjects in my career...
Expressions can be revealing, but they can be deceptive too... But an experienced photographic investigator can never be misled... Because she knows the difference between investigating and interpreting... An investigation must always be conducted without expectations and without preconceived ideas about the subject... a good investigation is like the very first investigation... one can never know where it will lead. This way, the very notion of misleading a photographic investigator is automatically "self-cancelled".
She was a Woman Without a Face and my only clue was: "Follow the rings" -whatever that meant. Of course, as soon as I located her, I knew... She could change her face no more than 3 times in 24 hours. And every time she had to use one of the 3 rings she wore. She could acquire one more ring -after a series of trials and rites i don't want to know nothing about- and that would place her at the top of the hierarchy of her kind, which was a very big deal. I guess that's why I was chosen to photographically investigate her. It was the eve of her great "test". I wholeheartedly hoped that she survived it...
Nicoletta 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.
