Unmoved by appearances

Unmoved by appearances

A photographic investigation very often looks like hunting or following appearances, the illusory world that we live in, but in reality is about standing still. A very powerful affirmation (by Florence Scovel Shinn) that I always use in the face of apparent adversity in my photographic investigations is: “I am unmoved by appearances, therefore appearances move”. And they always do.

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Wellness

Wellness

Emmet Fox said: “You are not happy because you are well. You are well because you are happy. You are not depressed because trouble has come to you, but trouble has come to you because you are depressed. You can change your thoughts and feelings, and then the outer things will come to correspond, and indeed there is no other way of working”. A photographic investigator’s job consists, partly, in proving, photographically, the truth of what she believes in. Like the quote from Emmet Fox, mentioned above.

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Time to write a different story

Time to write a different story

A photographic investigator knows that her subjects have been instructed, early in their life, to start constructing a story about themselves -enriched over the years with bits of experience, failures, successes, oppressed feelings and desires- and then believe it to be true. So naturally they get trapped in that story, rarely managing to escape it’s limitations. But she also knows that in a twinkling of the eye this truth can be realised and the subjects can write a different story, preferably one of harmony, radiance, health, wealth, love and perfect self expression. A happy story.

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Zenobian moods

Zenobian moods

Zenobia is not just the name of the warrior queen of Palmyra (or of her incarnation) but is also the name of a distant planet. It’s inhabitants have no real existence - they are various moods that make their presence known only by attaching themselves to the matching vibration of a visitor. I took my subject with me in yet another inter-dimensional journey in order to photographically investigate these Zenobian moods. You can see the results of my investigation.

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Vera Noir

Vera Noir

I photographically investigated Vera and her noir world after watching a great television version of Agatha Christie’s “A murder is announced”. This could have been the name of the investigation as the whole atmosphere was overflowed with a sense of secret, of something hidden. Well hidden, in Vera’s case.

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Cinematographique

Cinematographique

My assignment was about another noir woman actor who liked to play to the theater but was born to play in old noir movies. To achieve that she had to time/dimension travel and there was only one photographic investigator who could trace her: me. As you know, I have a great experience in inter-dimensional travel, even though this leads to an inevitable depletion of my power. But with enough good rest in a sunny, tropical island, everything is restored. So, this investigation took place, with me full of solar energy , powerful and positive. Needless to say, I knew where my subject was even before dialing possible other-dimensional addresses. Conclusion: with enough solar power, everything is done instantly…

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Dear Santa...

Dear Santa...

I was photographically investigating a subject that every year was sending to Santa Klaus a list with various vegetables. That was all she wanted for Christmas. Santa was troubled because he did not want to leave a bag with vegetables to someone’s fireplace -and then result that it was all a prank… So I went, I saw, I photographically investigated and indeed, for this year she was asking for 2 packs of mixed green salad, 10 tomatoes and 4 cucumbers. May your Christmas be merry and green, as we photographic investigators say in occasions like this…

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The Clear Light of Objective Reality

The Clear Light of Objective Reality

When a photographic investigator has a chance to integrate to the Clear Light of Objective Reality she never misses it. The urge to be free is great to a photographic investigator who has spent her life investigating the illusions /lives of her subjects, as well as her own. And although she has read many times the Tibetan Book of the Dead hoping that she will remember what to do when the time comes, she also likes the American Book of the Dead, by E.J. Gold and his guidance in the bardos. She must remember, she must remember…: “Now I am experiencing the Clear Light of objective reality. Nothing is happening, nothing ever has happened or ever will happen. My present sense of self, the voyager, is in reality the void itself, having no qualities or characteristics. I remember myself as the voyager, whose deepest nature is the Clear Light itself; I am one; there is no other. I am the voidness of the void, the eternal unborn, the uncreated, neither real nor unreal. All that I have been conscious of is my own play of consciousness, a dance of light, the swirling patterns of light in infinite extension, endless endlessness, the Absolute beyond change, existence, reality. I, the voyager, am inseparable from the Clear Light; I cannot be born, die, exist or change. I know now that this is my true nature.” (― E.J. Gold, The American Book of the Dead)

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The Greek shadow

The Greek shadow

My assignment was an interdimensional one, after a long time… I had to decline in taking this kind of assignments because of the energy drain that is caused to the photographic investigator by travelling to different dimensions and through time. But this one was very interesting -and I was feeling very strong and full of energy, after all. The portal was in the greek pavilion of the Venice Biennale -like so many are- and it was active only the last day of the Biennale. My task was to photographically investigate and follow a greek shadow that remained greek despite the nationality of the person who was casting it. It was taking their form, but not their nationality. Which, I guess was a tangible proof that nationality is not a real thing…

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Zenobia, the warrior queen of Palmyra

Zenobia, the warrior queen of Palmyra

My assignment was to photographically investigate the latest incarnation of Zenobia, the beautiful, magnetic, powerful and rebel queen of Palmyra. She had assumed the identity of another legendary (but fictional) warrior woman, Xena (also known to TV watchers as Xena, the Warrior Princess). The choice of an alias, although sometimes unconscious, is never too far from the source and this proved to be of great assistance to me. The task of a photographic investigator is to uncover the unlimited, hidden and always powerful identity of her subjects, of which they usually have no memory. Fortunately, this is a temporary situation and the process is greatly speeded up after the resuming of the photographic investigation.

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The robbers of time

The robbers of time

A new chapter in a photographic investigator’s book should be inspired. Inspired by a divine spark, a sudden revelation, a flash of realisation caused by a quote, a read or the words she heard by an unsuspected subject that interacts with her. In this case, my new chapter was inspired by a beloved Florence Scovel Shinn quote: “The robbers of time are the past and the future. Man should bless the past, and forget it, if it keeps him in bondage, and bless the future, knowing it has in store for him endless joys, but live fully in the now”. Fortunately, all my subjects are robbery proof. I am a lucky photographic investigator indeed.

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Water from the inside

Water from the inside

I was listening to an Alan Watts lecture ( a very poetic one). He was describing his love of the water. For him, love of water equals love of life. And this is exactly how I feel. Many times I imagined myself living by the sea, in a tropical place and just be and work all day in the water. Live -and sleep even- in the water, if possible. Only I would not like it to be very cold (and that is why my fantasy is taking place in a tropical paradise). While I was working on this photographic investigation, having just returned from a wetter than usual Venice -after November’s exceptionally high tide- I had still very vivid the image of glass windows wet from the inside, as the water that was trapped-in tried to get out, trapping itself again in the windows. And in my mind I knew that years of concentrated resentment by the Venetians about the Disneyland quality of their city, were probably the reason the waters rise so high, to purify and clean. Seeing little boats filled with destroyed refrigerators and washing machines going up and down the canals was poetry as well, a poetry with the same surreal quality of Alan Watts’ lecture. But then, a photographic investigator is trained to see these things, and even report them, even though she knows that her Venetian friends will probably resent her views and deny to take responsibility for what was manifesting around them. As up, so down, as inside, so outside.

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A game of boomerangs

A game of boomerangs

A photographic investigator often starts her day seeking inspiration and today was a Florence Scovel Shinn day. The quote that stuck to mind was the following: “The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.” Something to think about…

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Mindlessness or mindfulness?

Mindlessness or mindfulness?

I had in mind an Alan Watts lecture titled “Mind over mind”. A photographic investigator realises sooner or later that whenever the function or action of the mind is detected, a photographic investigation is impossible. And because trying to escape the mind is a function of the mind, ignoring it is the only way to go. This is really the measure of any fresh and original photographic investigation. The photographic investigator can’t dismiss the mind altogether, but the experienced one let it “think” it get’s it’s way, while the photographic investigation itself is about something else. Something ineffable, therefore untouched by the mind. Until it is published, of course…

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