“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…
The soundtrack of this photographic investigation was F.R. David’s (you know, the guy who wrote “Words” -don’t come easy-) “Pick up the phone”. Avalanches of 80’s sound memories rushed in, leaving no room for anything else.
I was revisiting a photographic investigation and then I heard a recording of a repeated affirmation by Dr Joseph Murphy: “I am the captain of my soul, I am the master of my fate. For my thoughts and feelings are my destiny”. It made sense. It makes sense.
A photographic investigation that took place while I was reflecting on the answer Neville Goddard gave to the question: “How could one who was deprived in his youth become a success in life?”
A photographic investigator knows that water is the best cure against photo-bombers. Give them a bottle or a glass of water and instead of sabotaging the investigation, they inadvertently contribute to it…
It was the afternoon of a busy day and my photographic investigation was taking place without me being fully aware of it, surrounded by the beautiful sounds of blackbirds and the sounds of the birds that I could hear in Takashi Kokubo’s album “Jamaica” that was the soundtrack of this assignment. Zenobia was tired and lacked oxygen. I didn’t go to the Jamaica soundscape to investigate, but I did it anyway.
That is the main question that’s popping in a photographic investigator’s mind in days where photographic investigations are an underground activity and mysterious viruses infect mysteriously a mysteriously large percentage of mysteriously selected parts of the planet. Being a big Doctor Who fan, I am one of those photographic investigators that wonders… But, the thing with The Doctor is that he is probably here working on the situation, but we have missed him just because we were looking for him. So I am reviewing some of my latest photographic investigations just in case my camera took a glimpse of him without me noticing. It happens very often…
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.
Genevieve Behrend said: “Do not be afraid to be your true self, for everything you want, wants you”. The Samba girls were fearless. It was Friday the 13th with a full moon when I decided to publish the results of this photographic investigation and as I was gazing upon them, I realised that I have never photographically investigated subjects that I did not love or admire, even though many times these subjects were strangers to me. The Samba girls I knew well, but in a strange way I found myself in the position to rediscover them again and again, after every photographic investigation. An amazing and extraordinary experience, every time.
A photographic investigator knows that the most extraordinary things happen in what most people call “ordinary moments”. But then, there are no ordinary moments - you have figured that out by now, haven’t you? So extraordinary is ordinary. And vise versa. And although my most prestigious and mysterious assignments take place in exotic or hidden or even mysterious places, in reality my best photographic investigations happen in between assignments…
The tricky thing with the Menu of Life is not so much WHAT to order, but HOW to order… The menu consists of all the things one can possibly imagine -therefore CAN have- but usually people think that someone must bring to them whatever they choose while they hold in their hands the menu of a self service establishment. Nevertheless, as a photographic investigator, it is my job (and my pleasure) to photographically investigate the efforts of my subjects to order. I always wish that they succeed, but I can’t intervene. You see, there are rules in my profession…
“Divine ideas never conflict” wrote Florence Scovel Shinn and I have found that to be very true. So my assignment was to photographically investigate this place called “The Realm of Perfect Ideas” but, as always, first I had to find it. My only clue was: “Mona Lisa wears sunglasses” .I also knew that there would not be the slightest sign of a conflict. So I followed Mona Lisa. It was a coffee shop where people were exploring alternative endings to The game of Thrones saga with great enthusiasm -preoccupation as well. You see, 8 years of a mortal’s life are too much to be lost to a bad, another man’s story… So people begun to write theirs. I always knew that soap operas lead to enlightenment. Now I knew that the same can happen with TV shows with a much greater budget. Ah well…
My assignment was to investigate this inter-dimensional dog called Luna who appeared suddenly in the lives of some of my regular subjects. Like all inter-dimensional creatures, Luna was in possession of some serious supernatural powers that had to be kept secret for obvious reasons. Having lived for many years with two of such creatures -my faithful helpers, Juanita and Lupe, the cats- I knew what was in stake. So I did my investigation and I reported my findings -but you can never know what they were. The upside of it is that Luna was extremely photogenic and one of her non supernatural talents was that of a model. So, enjoy her shots!
Most of the times a photographic investigator investigates subjects that are looking for something that is already -or always- available to them. We don’t complain, since this quest is what makes them “photographable” -all this wasting of energy likes to be captured- but sometimes we wonder “What if we told them that the wifi password that they are looking for is written in the blackboard behind them…?”. We haven’t come to a conclusion yet…
So many times I have talked about the dangers of moving too often between dimensions and time lines when photographically investigating people, stories, possible events or concepts, like I do. And God knows I had passed the limit. If anyone would have asked at any time, I would've completely rejected the possibility of doing it again, unless for going back to pre colombian Peru or pre captain Cook Hawai'i. Well, I did anyway it for Athens, my home city, a place I usually hate, a place I am bound -don't ask me by what- to return to. Of course the reason wasn't real, it was just a department store's spring window decorations. But what is real anyway?
I am not always hired to photographically investigate mysterious personalities. Sometimes my assignments have to do with some secret technological invention or material, informations hidden in peoples clothes or accessories and so on... This time I found myself again in Venice, investigating... a dress. It was made by a revolutionary material, called "Incognito" that didn't need washing or ironing and could stay fresh for a maximum of 10 days, making it the ideal item for medium time getaways or business travel (even vacation). It was conceived to accommodate the ideal of "no luggage traveling", an ideal that I am proud to say that I am a great advocate of, since I love travelling to exotic places only with the clothes I am wearing, my photography kit and my book. I had figured that everything else I could need (mostly pareos, hats, sunscreen and swimming suits) I would be able to buy there. The dress in question was ideal for spring and summer travel and the traveler should be able to carry all that she would need in the large bag that came with it as an indispensable accessory, mostly because women feel secure by caring a bag -being a huge bag carrier myself, this is a mystery I haven't solved yet.
That was the name of her destination, a place one could travel to without moving, since it was in another dimension. I have done so many trips of that sort in my photographic investigations career that I was reluctant to follow. Interdimensional travel is very dangerous for the life of the photographic investigator because it depletes -in a very rapid rate- the vital energy supplies. I didn't have much of them anymore. But a photographic investigator can't just sit and preserve whatever energy she has left. It's like being dead already. "You never know which one could be your last investigation" I thought to myself. It might as well be this one.
Miles Davies gave it another life, but this is a Snow White song and as such it should be sung with snow white faith and snow white impatience. Two things that a photographic investigator always finds in abundance in her young subjects...
From time to time I have come to encounter subjects that had the knowledge of how to shape the things to come. It's simple, really, for a photographic investigator to know how it is done, since their job is to observe, but usually difficult for subjects -who are accustomed to be observed or trying to avoid being photographically investigated. Tomorrow is not a fact, but today is. What you are thinking and feeling now, will inevitably shape your tomorrow. Having a subject consciously shaping her future, was a real delight for me.
There is a space in between shifts that it's size and length in the time/space construct not only is unfixed, but, as anything that includes the concept of time, is very subjective, psychological, even. The job of a photographic investigator is not to unveil it's mysteries, but to fully take advantage of it.
