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.
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...
It was called "Lila, the Divine Play", and it was the meeting place of many of my subjects. Because, as I have realised early on, in my business of photographically investigating people, all of my subjects are connected in some way. Maybe I am the connection. Maybe it's all a divine play, who knows? For now, I was happy that I had to be in Hawaii for this investigation... The day was pleasantly warm, a fantastic sea breeze was making the exotic curtains fly and a very thin layer of clouds was covering the sky... My subjects had just come back from a mission and they were all excited and hyperactive. That was just perfect for my work...
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".
Nicoletta made these fantastic corsets using ancient mexican magic... I did not manage to find out what was their special purpose... but I know it had something to do with flying...
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.
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...
