Nicoletta made these fantastic corsets using ancient mexican magic... I did not manage to find out what was their special purpose... but I know it had something to do with flying...
Read MoreThe Feathered Serpents
Venice
The Jean Genie
Another of Nicoletta's magical garments... It was a real genie... A helper that granted wishes. How many, only the lucky ones who wear it can say...
Read MoreNicoletta's corsets (part I - the Black Corset)
in black&white, film noir, Italy, monochrome, street, summer, travel, Venice
Nicoletta was a magical being. She created enchanted garments in a little shop in Campo S. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Her creations were famous for the special attributes they gave to the one who wore them, so I was hired to investigate 4 of her most powerful corsets. First, the Black Corset. Probably the most impressive one. It's secret, and greatest power, was that it could hide the halo that surrounds exceptional, spiritual beings from clairvoyant agents that worked for... (let's put it this way)... darker forces. It was a protection, a magical armour for ethereal presences. And it worked perfectly. Nicoletta used Luana, a beautiful fairy, to model her corsets and make sure that they served their purpose. And I was the witness.
Read MoreMister Minimal
Mister Minimal was Il Mister's twin brother and earned his living as a minimalist photography model. He was famous for posing with a camera and one day, because he was so tired of just hold this heavy thing, he started to shoot as well -just to see what happens. It was a revelation. He was so good that he left his job as a model and moved to Rio, where his photography was very popular. He originally wanted to go to New York, but Il Mister was there, pretending to play tennis in the Central Park Tennis Club. It was common knowledge that Mister Minimal couldn't stand In Mister... My investigation took place just before his career as a photographer sky rocketed and I am proud to say that I encouraged him significantly... a photographic investigator can see the hidden talents of his subjects before anyone else can...
Read MoreRegina, the movie
After I exposed her she assumed another identity. So, Jackie O'Can became La Regina (The Queen). She also had to remove her secret weapon, the state of the art microchip she had in her eye. But La Regina was still a valuable asset of Il Mister's secret circle in Venice, so this time she posed as an even more influential personality, a movie star. Establishing her "past" didn't take more than six months. Suddenly, all the cinema magazines featured her in their cover and she monopolised the international online entertainment media... Everybody knew la Regina and they felt as if they have known her all of their lives, although just a tiny doubt would be enough to make the illusion disappear. But the Mister's circle had long ago achieved a mastery in manipulating the people's minds, so nobody took the trouble to doubt... Her next movie was due in September and it was easy for me to approach her pretending to be a photo reporter (a risky choice, since they are very close to extinction...). And the rest was... kismet... She had been investigated and she had loved it...
Read MoreMe and them (again)...
Another classic case of letting fellow investigators think they investigate you while you investigate them... same place, different people... Sometimes I catch myself wondering if there are ever any people behind that mirror glass though, and what could they be thinking or doing while we are engaged in our investigations believing we are the only ones there...
Read MoreThe Sentinel
in black&white, film noir, Italy, light, minimal, monochrome, street, Venice
He posed as a simple guard but he was the Sentinel. And that day he was extremely alert, although his presence was full of calmness and light.
Read MoreMy name is Bon... Signore Bon.
in black&white, film noir, Italy, monochrome, people, portrait, street, street portraits, summer, Venice
My investigation ended because of a misunderstanding that happened in Thailand. They were expecting James Bond and Signore Bon was desperately seeking refuge. You see, he also was a spy, but a coffee spy. He was ruthlessly hunted down by a demented coffee lord in Guatemala because he had stolen the secret of the most expensive coffee in the world. For years he managed to successfully hide his identity posing as a gondolier and a photographer in Venice. That's where I investigated him. I was working for a woman that was willing to pay me his weight in gold in order to get her hands on that coffee secret. And she wanted to keep him alive, which was very important to me - "live and keep them alive" was my moto... It all went well - or so I though. And just when I was sure he had fallen into my trap, il Signore Bon disappeared. I looked for him in vain. I even solicited the help of powerful underground characters of Venice like El Guapo, Il Mister and La Regina that had been my subjects in the past. Nothing. And then, one morning, I received a post card from Thailand. All it said was: "My name is Bon. Signore Bon". Intuitively, I opened the TV. In Thailand they were celebrating Mister Bond's arrival... I knew it was him. I packed my suitcase and went to the vaporetto station. And then I realised I was being watched. I knew it was too risky to ask for El Guapo and il Mister's help... It was obvious I could not follow Signore Bon to Thailand. A photographic investigator has to be faithful to her principles... "Live and keep them alive"... remember? Fortunately my client had payed me a generous amount in advance and I had already explained to her the risks of my profession. I headed to the airport anyway. In my iPod Christina Train was singing "I wanna live in LA"... Why not? I thought... LA it was then... and after a few months maybe Hilo, Hawaii... I always loved that place...
Read MoreThe dark corner
She was my biggest rival's secretary. That meant that she knew all his secrets. The truth is he wasn't really a rival... more of a rival wannabe... I don't have rivals. But I had a difficult assignment and my subject was missing in action... He knew all about her, so I thought it would be easier to investigate his secretary. The secretary is a most important character in a situation where a photographic investigator is involved... like in a film noir. Needless to say, I don't have one. My faithful helpers, Juanita and Lupe do the job. But again, they can't be investigated by my "rivals"... they are cats. I watched one of my favourite film noir movies, The Dark Corner, for inspiration. Lusille Ball was playing the investigator's secretary.
Read MoreBurano Burano
A photographic investigation in a parallel italian island-universe where every day is laundry day... everywhere. I was there to investigate laundries, obviously. Many of them go undetected by the untrained tourist eye... but they are lurking in the most unusual places as well as in the most obvious. An interesting quiz would be: "Try NOT to find the laundry".
Read MoreThe gondolier's house
in black&white, monochrome, street, Venice
It was the day when 6 of my most mysterious and dangerous subjects, Il Mister, The Fox, The Muse, El Guapo, Eleonora Krane and Jackie'O Can had a secret meeting in Venice. A new, seventh member would be introduced to their circle. All I had to investigate was when and where the meeting would take place. My intuition didn't fail me… As I was walking around, I found myself looking at a house. A gondolier's mother obviously had just finished her laundry, I thought, because 7 gondolier's shirts were hanging by the rope… I knew I was in the right place the right time.
Read MoreThe flight of the eagle
Or the dance of observing… This performance made me think Krishnamurti's words from The "Flight of the Eagle" (1969): "One cannot learn about oneself unless one is free, free so that one can observe, not according to any pattern, formula or concept, but actually observe oneself as one is. That observation, that perception, that seeing, brings about its own discipline and learning; in that there is no conforming, imitation, suppression or control whatsoever - and in that there is great beauty. Our minds are conditioned - that is an obvious fact - conditioned by a particular culture or society, influenced by various impressions, by the strains and stresses of relationships, by economic, climatic, educational factors, by religious conformity and so on. Our minds are trained to accept fear and to escape, if we can, from that fear, never being able to resolve, totally and completely, the whole nature and structure of fear. So our first question is: can the mind, so heavily burdened, resolve completely, not only its conditioning, but also its fears? Because it is fear that makes us accept conditioning".
Read MoreBurano
in street, street portraits, summer, travel, Venice
Sometimes a Photographic Investigator finds herself in between assignments and they wander around observing. Everything is really amazing when you are silently observing it. Unfortunately, old habits die hard, so I ended up investigating two people… Luckily, it happened in Burano, so I did it in colour. So, one thing was out of the ordinary.
Read MoreBlade runner
I felt a little like one… Of course my mission was completely different -and I wasn't Deckard, although she looked a lot like Rachael… I had to follow her from Paris to the little island of Giudeca, in Venice. She was beautiful and she looked slightly sad and very innocent, but I didn't feel guilty. After all, my mission was not only to investigate her but to protect her as well. This time I had to use the help of two of my associates -the Fox and the Mister. They were old subjects of mine that became good friends and valuable colleagues. Both male and very attractive, they were the perfect decoy… Beautiful women rarely say no to handsome male photographers who offer to make their portraits. I called, they responded, and so we proceeded. It was a complete success. Although in my shots it seems like she is sometimes looking at my lens, the truth is that she didn't even glance at me. I don't think she saw me at all. Of course the fact that I was equipped only with my faithful Ricoh GR, helped a lot. Big lenses have a strong impact on beautiful subjects. I felt invisible, totally absent and powerful. Something you couldn't say about Deckard…
Read MoreCasablanca
She was the woman with no face. Simply because nobody was able to take a shot at it. Nobody knew what exactly happened to those who did, but everybody knew that they ended up in "Casablanca". Whether Casablanca was a night club, a dungeon or a concept, remained to be discovered. All I had to do was follow her and try to take that shot. I was feeling fearless that morning. Suddenly, I realised that The Fox was walking next to me. He had probably the same intention. I decided to let him take the first shot. Then, by simply following him, I would find out about Casablanca. It wasn't a bad plan. Not bad at all. But I will talk more about what happened to The Fox in a future post…
Read MoreCode name: "Amore"
Her job was to inspire strong and photographically very dangerous men. She was the Muse. In many ways, investigating only her would be like investigating at least five of my most challenging cases. I did it for myself. Sometimes a photographic investigator must go one step beyond to make her life easier. So I befriended her and did my usual thing… She was very cool and relaxed and although everything was going well, there was something alarming in her behaviour. She was too friendly. She was talking constantly on the phone saying the word "Ammmooore" and pronouncing it in this particular way. I thought she was inspiring someone. One of my subjects. But still, I could not shake off the feeling that something was wrong. I went to my hotel room and called one of my collections to check it out. I found out that Amore was a code name for a major investigative operation with the objective to locate all the wandering photographic investigators -like me- and put a constant watch over them. The headquarters were in Monaco. And it seemed that the Muse was the Boss. I found this information very intriguing. We were getting along very well. Perhaps I could offer her my services. But I had the feeling that the Muse was herself one step beyond me. Well… All I knew was that "Ammmmoore" sounded very cool.
Read MoreHummin' to myself
in light, lonely days, people, street, Venice
Well... that is not the worst thing that can happen to a photographic investigator while walking through the pastel hues of Venice… And it's kinda cool to have Connie Boswell's version in your head…
Read MoreWaiting for The Fox
The Fox was late. My partner was convinced that he was hidden somewhere shooting us. I accepted the possibility and started to act nonchalantly, photographically investigating the crowd in Piazza San Marco. Conclusion: when someone is late, it always turns out for the best.
Read MoreMe and them
Photographically investigating fellow investigators is not easy. But it's something every photographic investigator must do, sooner or later… I have discovered, after many trials and fails, that the method that works best for me is to make them think they are investigating… me. And in the meantime, it's a great opportunity to investigate a more about myself. A little more self investigation can never come too late and can never be too much.
Read MoreMr Blue Sky
He was one of my most dangerous assignments. That's why I got payed 3 times my usual fee to investigate him -and in advance… After all, I had to think of Juanita and Lupe, my faithful helpers. He was known to secret, underground circles of Venice as "Mr Blue Sky" because whenever he appeared the clouds had a tendency to disappear. And a photographic investigator always knows that a man who can scare the clouds in Venice is extremely dangerous. So, I had to take double caution. Mr Blue Sky was getting around under the facade of a photographer, but he was really the drummer of a jazz band called "Dangerous People". A job very well picked, I might add, because no one ever notices the drummer… Of course, this was yet another facade. Mr Blue Sky was a man on a secret mission. Not violent by nature, but prepared to do whatever was necessary to protect his cover. His mission was to discover the secret biscotti recipe of the legendary Rossela. Her biscotti had miraculous antidepressant, uplifting and sometimes hallusinogenic powers -and Mr Blue Sky's employer had already spend a fortune to get his hands on it. As soon as he had the recipe, an underground factory would prepare the biscotti only for his personal delight. Of course, I knew all about even before Mr Blue got his assignment. You see, I knew Rossela. And I had the recipe. I have tasted the biscotti. So I knew I should never let him get near her. And that's how this photographic investigation begun… It hasn't ended yet… Mr Blue Sky is not easy to fool. The only thing that is certain is that I will take the recipe to my grave -Rossela is already in a safe place. Let's hope that that day will delay a little more.
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