In between photographic investigations, not sitting at the dock of the bay, not wasting time...
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portrait
In between photographic investigations, not sitting at the dock of the bay, not wasting time...
Read MoreShe was more than that, of course. I wouldn't be investigating her otherwise… She made jewels with mystic materials that nobody knew where they came from. They were very personal and very protective. Protective against everyone's fears. They were working as a trigger to remind to their bearers that the their fear existed only in their mind and in a way that it made them stop treating something that did not exist as something real. She managed to conceal her special gifts but everyone seemed to get what they needed, when they needed it. I was sitting next to her in a coffee shop and I haven't realised what she really did until I wore the jewel that appeared mysteriously in my jacket pocket as I was entering my car.
Read MoreShe drove a bright red 1969 Ford Cortina GT with white leather seats. She wore a bindi between her eyes and she ordered cold coffee. I knew she was a time machine malfunction visitor when I saw her taking out of her purse a bright yellow plastic toy film camera and started taking photos of everyone around. I stole that camera from her, the moment she handed the DJ a vinyl record with the soundtrack of Henry Mancini's Pink Panther asking him to play "Cortina" -if he wouldn't mind. She dissapeared in a flash, the moment Super Mario, the DJ, touched the record. And this was probably the reason why the record hadn't disappear as well. But when I reached for the vintage film camera in my bag, it wasn't there. "Maybe I am not here either", I thought.
Read MoreThe woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep
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It was the day before the solstice and the day was happy because she wasn't the smallest. Her super small sister was expected tomorrow, the 21st of December and that was celebrated because it's a cool thing to know that you can't possibly get less light. And if you can't get less, you'll get more… I like to think that that's what subconsciously made the people around me so happy in that "bleak midwinter" Sunday. Or could it be the waiting for the longest night?
Read MoreLooking at old shots while listening to Bill Evans seemed like a fine way to pass a Sunday afternoon. The music gave them a completely different dimension. And here they are...
Read MoreIt is amazing how some of my subjects naturally glow with that light. I love them, not only because they make me happy, but also because this warm, natural christmas light is perfect for photos. No flash needed, ever!
Read MorePhotographing people drinking coffee or smoking is a routine for a photographic investigator… Photographing them eating cookies on the other hand is more challenging and a great deal more revealing. One way or the other, most photographic subjects have mastered the art of gesturing while enjoying a coffee or a smoke. Cookies are more unconventional. But I think much more enjoyable both for my subjects and me.
Read MoreBill Evans Trio was playing "It might as well be spring"on the radio. It was 1962 in a parallel dimension and the beginning of December was resembling more like the end of March. Her name was Martha Jones and she enjoyed her cold coffee in the middle of this springlike winter along with a cigarette. Cigarette smoking was strongly encouraged at this time in this dimension and that was making my investigations much more easy, because subjects are more relaxed when they smoke. I never rally knew who she was, but that wasn't my job anyway.
Read MoreIt's a mystic word. A promise. The first December morning coffee is proven to have magic powers and a trancsedental quality. A photographic investigator finds it very difficult to shoot a subject who drinks her first December morning coffee in black&white. Everything turns into colour. Sometimes you have to resign. Love, warmth, togetherness, friendship, protection are now not impossible notions. Even a photographic investigator must have faith in something...
Read MoreNovember 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…
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 MoreThe 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.
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.
Read MoreShe 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…
Read MoreDo I see myself as I would like to be or do I like what I see? Investigating me is not easy. But it's surprisingly fun sometimes…
Read MoreYou 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…
Read MoreShe 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…
Venice and a red coat. Nicolas Roeg 1973 movie comes to mind… I'm still a great deal scared of Venice because of it. My subject had a red coat and was always looking at something: a camera, a cell phone, an art installation or something strange (that explain's why she was looking at me). It just made me wanna shout: "Don't look now!" but instead I took some shots.
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