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 MoreEditing the last photographic investigation of my beloved subject with the code name "Seven" it came to my mind a comment of the Irish poet David Whyte about "La via negativa": which a notion/practise in the catholic contemplative tradition that, at it's heart, consists in the ability and the discipline to say “no” in everything in your life that is not an enormous "yes". What Keats calls "negative capability", in David Whyte's words, "The ability to open an absence inside you, into which the world rushes".
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 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 MoreSamsara is wisdom unrecognised, said Vajrasattva. In the heart of enlightenment, samsara and sorrow are merely the play of the All Good. And the five poisons of lust, aversion, dulness, arrogance and jealousy reveal themselves as five wisdoms. Wisdom is all pervading like the light of the sun. It is an all-healing flow of compassion than washes away our five negative predispositions. This photographic investigation brought the above truths to mind…
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 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 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 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 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.
Read MoreThe clue for this photographic investigation was “The van”. Fortunately, an experienced photographic investigator is used to think out of the box and rarely takes her clues literally. It was very easy to locate the miniature van and photographically investigate the subject behind it. Not that I am complaining, but sometimes I think that my mysterious -but very generous- employers need to challenge me a little more…
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 MoreMy new subject was working in the Old Curiosity Coffee Shop and I should know what clues to look for, except… I never got to read Dickens’ book -I had it in my library though! So I knew that the environment, though very pleasant, wouldn’t help me to complete the photographic investigation. She was known as the “Cat Mistress” because she loved and protected cats -and she was equally loved and protected by them. Her totem animal was the Caracal, a beautiful wild cat species that could jump 3 meters in the air and catch birds! My totem is the black bird and we could obviously have a conflict of interests there, but what helped me approach her was the recent appearance of the jaguar as my spirit animal -a sort of special, temporary messenger. This way, the necessary compatibility was achieved and my photographic investigation started.
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.
Read MoreAnother photographic investigation, another mystery with a code name… This time my subject was a renown spacecraft designer and the possessor of a classic greek beauty.
Read MoreA photographic investigator realises that all questions are wrong questions. Except one: “Who Am I”?
Read MoreA forgotten photographic investigation of a fellow photographer, Maria, during a hot August day in the museum of the Acropolis, which I always find most inspiring for portraits of interesting people. The secret? A magical grey wall that acts as a black hole for everything else except the emotional depth of my subject. Not anybody can be photographically investigated there…
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