My 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.
“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.
Some 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.
A 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.
A 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.
Sometimes 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.
A 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.
“Stillness” is the message of a praying mantis sighting and it comes when it is a virtue most difficult to adopt. But then, a photographic investigator never has random sightings or encounters and she knows there are messages and guidance everywhere. Her job is to watch, receive and photographically investigate…
The 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…
A photographic investigator sooner or later realises that there is a distinction between the screen upon which a movie is projected and the movie itself. Many things happen in that movie and many feelings are evoked to the poor viewer, but the screen remain unchangeable. In times of pressure or general fear and anxiety, a photographic investigator always reminds herself: “Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists…”
In 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…
My 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.
From 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.
Photographic investigations, just like their subjects -the people- are never lost. They are always where they are. But very often they found themselves outside of a photographic investigator’s present dimension - but a photographic investigator is an apt dimension crosser. So inevitably they will meet. Just like it happened with this investigation. It was November of 2019 in the planet of Venice, after the great “acqua alta”…
In that particular inter-dimensional photographic investigation all music was forbidden in the cafeterias because of a deadly virus that entered the human organism through the vibrations that hit the eardrums. And also through the pores of the skin situated in the chin. So there was no music and everybody was wearing chirurgical masks around their chin. A photographic investigator frequently encounters things that in our dimension would be considered strange - but not there. But even in this depressing dimension there was a way out: it was referred to with the code name “Chicago” and my assignment was to discover what exactly this was. It was a total success, but unfortunately -as it happens in many cases- I cannot reveal more at this point…
I ask myself because this is also what we think of our world, don’t we? Architectural models and art can invoke meditations like this in a photographic investigator, in the most unsuspected moments or places. This one happened in Venice, during the 2016 Architecture Biennale.
A 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…
