“Sitting here in limbo, but I know it won’t be long”, sung Jimmy Cliff and that phrase was the clue for my next photographic investigation. My subject was Zenobia, the daughter of a wealthy family from Chicago who was taking a vacation on a tropical island of the Pacific with a suitcase full of golden coins for her expenses. It was a tradition in her family to pay only with gold, but in this island the authorities in the airport had never encountered a similar case -most of them had never seen golden coins before- so they confiscated her gold until a higher authority decided it was OK to give it back. Until then, Zenobia was living in limbo, spending her days in a coffee shop near the airport, waiting for a new development. I know that my powerful, mysterious employers had the power to arrange for her to have her gold back, but they wanted me to photographically investigate her. So I did it fast, because I don’t like for my subjects to be miserable…
Read MoreI was about to watch a 1929 classic black and white film called “The locked door”, starring Barbara Stanwyck, when someone slipped a handwritten note under my door -that was also locked… My mysterious employers had not given me any sign of life for the last two years and I was worried that our secret operations had been revealed to the wrong people. I was in no danger, of course, but I had missed my secret assignments. My faithful helpers, Juanita and Lupe were begging me for some action. I guess cat’s wishes are more rapidly answered… The note provided me with clues about a beautiful, wealthy young woman, which I was supposed to photographically investigate immediately, as she was about to return to Crete -for some nefarious business, I am sure. It was easy. She was suspicious at first, but then, my ability to open locked doors was the one that had made me famous in my field.
Read MoreMy new subject had just returned from Tanzania. While I was photographically investigating her, listening with great interest her accounts about the place and the people, Ralph Waldo Emerson came to my mind and something he wrote in his book “Self reliance”, which I recognised as an undeniable truth.
Read MoreMy new subject was powerful. She had the ability to transform herself into anything she wished to -organic or inorganic- and she could also transform others. Her power had it’s source in the unshakable conviction that as a daughter of a powerful king she could have all of her wishes fulfilled. And she had a preference in the art of transformation… A photographic investigator must be careful in situations like this one, where a wrong look or word could transform them into a cucumber or an umbrella… So I walked carefully into my new assignment, being alert and ready at any time to push the button of my inter-dimensional wrist watch.
Read MoreWe were told to expect them. Every photographic investigator was preparing for the arrival of the little people from outer -or inner- space. But none of them was as blessed as I was with valuable faithful helpers and mysterious clue providers. The message came written in a piece of kitchen paper roll: “They are well dressed”. So I started photographically investigating shops for extremely well dressed little people.
Read MoreThat was the message that arrived at my house via Eduardo, a friend of my faithful helpers, Juanita and Lupe. It was stuck on his collar -he is also a cat, like them. A photographic investigator is very sensitive to her surroundings and ultimately my sleep was intermittent and a high pitched noise was constantly in my ears. No new assignments either. So this ultimate message came as a clue as well as an advise… I guess the advise meant: Walk lightly, don’t let your heart be troubled, a Gemini can handle anything. As for the clue, I knew that it suggested that my new subject was a good example of this attitude. At the end of the day our experience is defined by the story we choose to tell to ourselves. Be it comic, funny, tragic, adventure, crime, police or horror. Or just a plane New York Times best seller list paperback…
Read MoreI was photographically investigating a fellow photographic investigator who was cursed with betrayal in her relationships and she always had monochrome summers. It was a repeating theme -karmic, according to her- to which she had resigned a long time ago. She was very rich but by then she knew not to show her wealth to people whom she suspected not to be sincere. This summer her life was full of them, as always. But she was blessed with a faithful helper, a mysterious creature who cared for her and always revealed to her what she couldn’t see. So I followed her to her summer retreat, a mysterious, minimal, monochrome dimension in the greek islands, where she went to be invisible. And she was.
Read MoreMy two faithful helpers, Juanita and Lupe are cats. When my assignments demand that I travel to another place or another dimension, they obviously cannot be with me - there are so many things that they have to take care at our own base. But they always give me a specific assignment that includes photographic investigations of the cat populations of every new place or dimension in order to find more cat individuals that would possibly alleviate some of their work load. Lately Juanita and Lupe complain that they work too hard and they claim that they deserve their own helpers. A photographic investigator is nothing without her faithful helpers. So their wish is my command.
Read MoreMy next assignment came with the mail. Handwritten, with a beautiful calligraphy in an old piece of paper was the following quote from Florence Scovel Shinn’s book “The Game of Life and how to Play it”: The white light of Divine Love flows through me and around me, inspiring and protecting me. The light of Divine Love now dissolves and dissipates every negative condition in my mind, body and affairs. Every cell of my body is filled with the light of Divine Love”. I instantly knew where to go and what to do. i didn’t even have to pack a suitcase…
Read MoreMy new assignment was to photographically investigate the lead actor of a movie that was been filmed on a greek ferry boat. I had 6 hours to find him and capture him -with my lens, of course… He was elusive, but when an experienced photographic investigator is presented with a similar situation, she just shoots silhouette. There were no instructions for the contrary, so everyone was happy.
Read More“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air” wrote Emerson and this quote was my clue for finding my new subject. My mysterious employers love to be… mysterious, so I received this quote written in a piece a paper that was attached to the collar of an abandoned cat that knew how to find me. I was immediately intrigued because I have always been inspired by Emerson’s words. Living in the sunshine of divine love that flows trough us and around us, swimming the sea of human emotions, drinking the wild air of inspiration, pure Spirit.
Read MoreSome subjects never cease to be subjects of a photographic investigation. It is not in their nature. He was elusive to me for four long years. In the past he was known as “Julian” or “The Mexican” and he was the protagonist of some very interesting assignments of mine. My sources informed me that presently he was going by the name “The influencer”. A photographic investigator never says goodbye to her subjects no matter how many alter egos they have -and she investigates them until she is called to another photographically investigating dimension.
Read MoreA photographic investigator, constantly traveling through different dimensions and alternate realities must be a pragmatist and follow the feet of her subjects because you are where you land to and you -usually- land to your feet.
Read MoreJuanita and Lupe, the faithful helpers of this photographic investigator, come from Mexico. In Acapulco, where I met them for the first time -during a very long photographic investigation-, were known as “Cocodrilo y Camarón” (The Crocodile and the Shrimp"). They started of as a team that had the ability to bend space and reality in general and this attribute proved to be very useful to me, as, at the time, I was in one of my inter-dimensional assignments and my energy was somewhat depleted by the constant altering of realities. Since our first collaboration, we became inseparable…
Read MoreA photographic investigator realises sooner or later on her constant journey that she is a traveller. A traveller who is eager to reach her destination quickly, does not look back to see by what road she has come not does she ponder about what she has seen on the way or what she has gained by it, says Sri Anandamayi Ma. Exactly like that, she advises, thoughts of the past must be cast aside in the aspirant’s life.
Read MoreA photographic investigator knows that if you don’t project it in the screen of your mind, it isn’t there. So you don’t see it.
Read MoreAlthough a photographic investigator is trained to interpret the visible, she has tools to her disposal that allow her to penetrate the invisible. Reflections are one of these tools, as are shadows. A hidden element always revels itself in a reflection and everybody knows that a shadow doesn’t lie…
Read MoreMornings are the most powerful time of the day for a photographic investigator. And while she can best express the light that shines in her heart with each sunrise through photos, there are other enlightened beings who manage to do this with words. In Waldorf education, founded by Rudolf Steiner, the children say this “Morning verse” every morning:
Read MoreSometimes a photographic investigator tests herself just to see if former subjects would produce the same insights in the present. They don’t of course… Something new, something exiting is always around the corner. This is a promise that can’t be broken.
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