She was named after the infamous Mali tribe and she frequented a bar named Sirius... And I don't believe in coincidences... It goes without saying that she was a woman of mystery and many hidden talents. My assignment was to follow, befriend and photographically investigate her in order to discover clues about a hidden treasure. Was it hers, was it a legacy, was it mystical, ancient or stolen? I was dying to find out because since my first investigative steps, as a child, I was always looking for treasures. And although I would be very well satisfied with gold or diamonds, I suspected from the start that it was about something else, much more precious, much more subtle. I got to work fast, because I was promised a 25% cut on that treasure. The investigation is still ongoing.
That was my only clue. For some reason, the day this phrase came written in a piece of paper inside an envelope in my poste restante in Switzerland, all I could get myself to do was to photographically investigate this girl... Intuition is one of the most useful tools of a photographic investigator, so instead of forcing myself in an aimless search, I ordered another coffee and investigated her even more. She was discussing a mysterious phenomenon that was occurring every time that she entered a specific building, a glass tower in the outskirts of Geneva... There was a decadent "texture" or "colour" in the way she described the building and the people in it -and the fact that the second she was stepping inside it, a terrible headache was attacking her. Her friends stressed all the possible theories that could explain the phenomenon, from the electromagnetic fields energy to some peoples bad vibes... but she knew (and I knew as well) that there was something else going on... Of course all the symptoms disappeared the moment she entered her house, a small castle-like building that her father had build especially for her. It was called "The Angel's Cave"... There was much more to be investigated there, so I committed myself to solve The Glass Tower Mystery -and for that reason I cancelled my trip to Venice, where Mister Minimal and the other members of his infamous -to a selected few of course- secret society were waiting for me... TO BE CONTINUED...
Astrology for coffee is like sympathy for tea... a perfect match that doesn't exclude the presence of an occasional cigarette which promotes a deeper understanding of the planetary movements. Besides, investigating an astrology reader is always more fun over coffee. My assignment was to investigate the moment of realisation that the prediction were correct, and I think it went pretty well...
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.
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.
That's what the mysterious note said... She was very reluctant to read it... Intuition, maybe... who knows? I was there, as always investigating looks and reactions. I wasn't there to find out what the content of the note was, that, I knew...
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...
I was hired again to investigate another strange group. After the love exhaling people of Santa Fe, now I had to follow the activities of a beauty measuring group in Denmark... There was nothing to it, really, all I had to do was to take shots of the beauty and of some of the people who were trying to measure it. I don't now if they succeeded, because they say it's not an easy task, but I was very satisfied with my work, which was the documentation of the process. And of the pure beauty, of course...
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.
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".
Mister Minimal was Il Mister's twin brother and earned his living as a minimalist photography model. He was famous for posing with a camera and one day, because he was so tired of just hold this heavy thing, he started to shoot as well -just to see what happens. It was a revelation. He was so good that he left his job as a model and moved to Rio, where his photography was very popular. He originally wanted to go to New York, but Il Mister was there, pretending to play tennis in the Central Park Tennis Club. It was common knowledge that Mister Minimal couldn't stand In Mister... My investigation took place just before his career as a photographer sky rocketed and I am proud to say that I encouraged him significantly... a photographic investigator can see the hidden talents of his subjects before anyone else can...
After I exposed her she assumed another identity. So, Jackie O'Can became La Regina (The Queen). She also had to remove her secret weapon, the state of the art microchip she had in her eye. But La Regina was still a valuable asset of Il Mister's secret circle in Venice, so this time she posed as an even more influential personality, a movie star. Establishing her "past" didn't take more than six months. Suddenly, all the cinema magazines featured her in their cover and she monopolised the international online entertainment media... Everybody knew la Regina and they felt as if they have known her all of their lives, although just a tiny doubt would be enough to make the illusion disappear. But the Mister's circle had long ago achieved a mastery in manipulating the people's minds, so nobody took the trouble to doubt... Her next movie was due in September and it was easy for me to approach her pretending to be a photo reporter (a risky choice, since they are very close to extinction...). And the rest was... kismet... She had been investigated and she had loved it...
Another classic case of letting fellow investigators think they investigate you while you investigate them... same place, different people... Sometimes I catch myself wondering if there are ever any people behind that mirror glass though, and what could they be thinking or doing while we are engaged in our investigations believing we are the only ones there...
