summer
A photographic investigator approaches her assignment with a beginner’s mind. Without plan, without preconceptions, without expectations, without knowledge, without having the slightest idea of what will happen. Than is the only way that a photographic investigation can be true. And that is not a rule, it is an observation.
Read MoreThe cats that helped me with my assignment in the greek islands haven’t said their last word. It seems that there were some shots of them that I had forgotten. They were hidden in a secret file of a lost archive of a destroyed mobile phone - a photographic investigator uses all the potential tools that has in her disposal at the time of the investigation. The cats informed me about their existence and the long and adventurous search of them begun… After almost 2 years, we succeeded to recover them. And here they are!
Read MoreThat was the name of the 2 girl rock band I was investigating a few months ago. They were very reluctant to have their faces photographed. Not their feet, though… And what would be more appropriate, considering the name of their band? In fact, one of them had indeed new shoes, while the other one was just "hangin' out" shoeless. Coincidence? Nobody will ever know.
Read MoreWhen a photographic investigator who discovers her subjects following clues that arrive at her doorstep by mysterious ways receives a note that says “Call off the search”, what is she supposed to do? Maybe stop looking and realise that her subject is closer to her than she could have ever imagined.
Read MoreMy new assignment arrived while Dave Brubeck was playing “Take the A train”. My faithful companion brought me a piece of paper that said: “Initial”. In the life of a photographic investigator everything is interconnected and the course of the investigation -as well as it’s subject- are revealed by themselves without the necessity of thinking or wondering. The reason behind it always remains unsaid, though. But I am OK with it. Anyway, I knew that I had to replace the “A” with another letter and that that letter would be the initial of my subject’s first name. My intuition told me that was an
Read More“Originally, Bodhi is not a Tree, Nor is the mind-mirror standing. Originally, not one thing exists,
So where is the dust to cling?”
My new assignment had to do with hair. My new subject’s hair, not hair in general. The Jamaica Inn was a hair salon and at the same time it was my only clue about her and where to find her. As any good photographic investigator I pretended to be a customer with a particularly bad hair week and got to work while a very handsome hair stylist was contemplating what to do with my hair. A photographic investigator is used to make sacrifices.
Read MoreMy subject was witness to a miraculous manifestation. And although the words “manifestation” and “law of attraction” are very widely used and invoked today, very few people actually believe that they work -this is probably why they prefer giving endless lectures about it. But some people can do it, and those people prefer keeping it a secret. So when I was hired to investigate an actual witness to a magical appearance of a mansion -the way Aladin’s lantern would do it- I knew that my subject was on the run and that the time I had was limited…
Read More“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 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 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 suspects from the beginning that she operates in a make believe world and tries to capture it’s aspects. But there comes a time when suspicions become an undeniable reality and the confinements of Disneyland seem to close in on all its characters. A photographic investigator knows then that it is time to make use of her freedom pass and leave Disneyland.
Read MoreIn dark times shamans had to protect themselves under an energetic cloak. Likewise, good witches had to disguise themselves in darkness, in order to awaken in us, undetected, the sparks of love and light that connect us to the divine. To be photographically investigating one of these exceptional creatures was a rare privilege and I enthusiastically took the assignment, disregarding the ensuing depletion of my energy - inter dimensional photographic investigations tend to have that effect on me…
Read MoreThis was the code name for an urgent, after midnight photographic investigation of Zenobia, in colour. I have been known to accept the challenge of a colour assignment under conditions that cloud my judgement, like that heat wave that tormented Athens for over a week. I didn’t like it, but a photographic investigator never goes back on an engagement, so I reluctantly finished the investigation. Once again, I swore it was the last time…
Read MoreFrom Crete to Naxos, from Theseus to Dionysus, from mortality to immortality… My assignment was to follow the “mitos” (thread) of Ariadne, my new subject, out of the center of the labyrinth after the discovery of the great secret. Why would I want to return, some may ask. It’s simple. I was engaged to undertake several more photographic investigations before I departed from this dimension. And a photographic investigator never falls back on her commitments.
Read MoreThe code name for this assignment was “Magnificat” (My soul magnifies the Lord). Immediately the reality of something that Lester Levenson pointed out struck me: that when you dive into the very core of a feeling, you will observe that nothing is really there. Like looking at a magnified object. The more magnified it is, the less detectable it is. My subject was a heiress experiencing an intense feeling of unease and dissatisfaction about the fact that she had to pursue studies in theology in order to receive the 24 billion dollars that were hers… A photographic investigator must let her subjects realise the truth on their own, though.
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