As you probably remember from a previous case story, Dorian K. needed no clues from my mysterious employers in order to be photographically investigated. His photographic investigation always happens spontaneously. In this case my subject was his upcoming book -that he was writing for the last few years- on human coexistence. I believe this is his subject. As I was investigating him I told him to hurry up because I would like to read it - at least I was ambitious to try. A photographic investigator warms herself up before any demanding task, because she needs to always be prepared -as humanly possible, that is. So my mysterious employers -with whom I have a telepathic connection- left for me Julio Cortazar’s “Rayuela” (Hopscotch) in a place where I would easily find it during my morning walk. And I did. And knowing that it’s a masterpiece and that it demands a special way of reading it -following the writer’s instructions about the order of the chapters- I delayed starting it. A photographic investigator’s knows better that anyone that there are no coincidences. Maybe delays -in reading, in writing, in publishing, in everything- are not really delays, but a part of the plan. (My mysterious employers plan, to be clear).
Read MoreWhen a photographic investigator wanders in the forest without a subject or assignment, poetry “sneaks in” and overwhelms her. In my case it was the poem “Lost”, by David Wagoner, which became my favourite.
Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
Read MoreThe clue that my mysterious employers gave me about my new subject was: “Moonlighting”. And for a moment I thought that I had to travel -again- through time and space to find myself in LA during the shooting of one of my most beloved tv shows of the 80’s… Could my subject be David Addison, Miss Dipesto, or even Maddie Hayes? Well, my subject’s name was Maddie, she was just as beautiful as Maddie Hayes and I did not had to travel through time to photographically investigate her. Just like Maddie Hayes was reluctant to start the Blue Moon Detective Agency with David Addison, my Maddie was reluctant to use her popular name, given that her christian name was Adamandia, which means diamond like. I could sympathise and even agree with her, but my love for Moonlighting prevailed.
Read MoreMy new subject was a fire-fighter’s daughter that could make herself invisible by touching a Chinese dragon pendant of mysterious origin, gifted to her by her mother. Her mother was a beautiful inter-dimensional model and the pendant’s power was coming from her. Needless to say that while recuperating from some inter-dimensional displacement (which I have explained in previous blogs that is energy consuming) the dragon’s power weakened. And it’s exactly in such an occasion that my window of opportunity opened. A photographic investigator knows there is no luck, but that don’t prevent her from taking advantage of it!
Read MoreAs you know, a photographic investigator’s special power is the one that permits her to travel through time and dimensions. And although this gives her a great advantage and helps her accomplish her assignments more effectively, sometimes there are complications. One of them is that repeated time or dimension displacements deplete her energy. Another one is that the use of spirits usually messes up with her destination, resulting in her finding herself in a place, time or dimension different than the one planned. It all started with the usual cryptic message from my mysterious employers: This time it was “Margarita”. At the time, I was in an art exhibition in Cuba, having a tequila shot, a spirit that I hate. And with good reason. My assignment was urgent and so I did not hesitate to depart immediately to the given coordinates. Unfortunately, I found myself in Mexico 20 years before the intended timeline and in a dimension where a margarita was a kind of cold coffee, the favourite drink of my new subject. Her name was also Margarita and she was waiting for me out of time, out of dimension and space. Of course, as always, it was all planned to the minutest detail by my mysterious and powerful employers…
Read MoreOnce again I found myself in Melissi, an inter-dimensional village where photographic investigators rest after long travels between dimensions and timelines and where I personally audition cat-helpers -an essential part of a photographic investigator’s assignments. The new candidates where playful and highly evasive. A good match, I thought…
Read MoreThe 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.
Read More“When you run after thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick. Every time the stick is thrown you run after it. Instead, be like a lion, who rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick to a lion once!”
Read MoreMy new subject, Tatiana, was working in Sorrento and I was there for it’s healing waters, as I have mentioned in a previous blog post (“The healing waters of Sorrento”). As usual, I had no idea about this new assignment, neither did I know that the woman who served me my sour cherry drink every day, was the one I had to photographically investigate. My clue came one night through intuition and via a dj who was strategically placed in the right time at the right bar by my mysterious employers. Intuition made me send a waiter to ask the name of a song I liked and the clue came in a piece of paper. The dj wrote: “Caritas abundant in Omnia” (“Love Aboundeth in All Things”). It was certainly not the song I’ve heard, but the name of a hymn written by Hildegard of Bingen -a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages. I knew right away that I had to look around me for an angelic creature. This is the first part of this photographic investigation…
Read MoreMagical places and mysterious creatures don’t impress a photographic investigator. If she can survive inter-dimensional travel with all it’s energy depleting implications, she certainly can handle elves, goblins and other strange presences that are lurking inside trees, becoming one with them, giving them a different kind of life. This impromptu photographic investigation happened when I realised that someone was watching me as I was laying on the beach on a warm autumn’s afternoon… But then, it was Halloween and the veil between the worlds was getting thiner than ever…
Read MoreI was sent there for the healing waters. My mysterious employers offered me this assignment as a gift because they knew that my energy levels were depleting after so many inter-dimensional travels. I was grateful but I wasn’t seeing any results on myself, to be honest. But there was this man that me and a fellow investigator had noticed sitting always in the same position in a beach bar that was called Sorrento. We had figured that his indian name was “The one who sits” as we were “The ones who came”. One morning I took a long was after sunrise and I found myself in Sorrento. “The one who is sitting” was coming out of the water and a few seconds later in his place I saw a young woman fishing. And then I knew that I was transformed, because what we see is us, really…
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 MoreThe clue about my new subject came with the wind. It was expected through the mail, but after an unprecedented explosion in the post office -a product of overwhelming anticipation for the upcoming Chinese New Year, the year of the Dragon- the wind took over the deliveries that the fire failed to eliminate. Only a small piece of half burned paper had survived, with the words: “Eyes with neither artifice nor evasion”. It was one of the more clear clues that I had received for a long time. I knew exactly where to find this amazing subject. The Year of the Dragon was approaching promising not to disappoint…
Read MoreSuddenly this fall everything was changing. A photographic investigator can -under extreme circumstances- manipulate planetary and galactic movements to maintain a situation that requires further investigating. And that was exactly what I was attempting this fall. Seven planets became retrograde in order to stop my subjects from moving into different realities. With no success so far. But a photographic investigator also can recognise when a full circle is complete and she surrenders her wants and needs to the wisdom of the universe.
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?”
Read MoreMy 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
