woman
I don't know if it was an entrance or an exit. Maybe neither. There was light, so inevitably there were shadows. I remembered an arabic song called "Fly shadow, fly". Could I be investigating -without knowing it- the ability of a shadow to fly? Well, if it could, it should do it followed by this melody.
Read MoreWhat can really be the end of a photographic investigator is not travelling in space, but travelling in time. And I've done that a lot... For some unexplained and probably mystical (or totally meaningless) reason, every time I had to travel in time I was going back to Venice. So, my energy resources were every time smaller, although my ticket was getting cheaper and cheaper. It felt like a countdown. "Al fin, que para morir nacimos" as they say in Mexico... "In the end, we are born to die". Who knows? Maybe the end of my photographic investigations would come in the middle, inside the time vortex, outside of time. I wonder if all my work would disappear with me too. It should, I think.
Read MoreI once bought a perfume in India, called "Night in Vrindavan". It was very exotic and "indian" -only those who have been to and loved India know what I mean- and it's name stayed with me for more than 25 years... I thought it had to do with some romantic notion, but I found out, by chance, that it had to do with the local belief that every night, in the Nidhivan forest, Lord Krishna appears, performing the divine dance with his consort, Radha. A really mystical, divine act that can't be witnessed by ordinary people, as it can drive them mad. Vrindavan is the childhood place of Lord Krishna, a holy place for the hindus. My subject was making open plans for a trip around the world and had just purchased some new clothes. Written in the label of the most beautiful blouse was the word "Vrindavan"... She told me that her first stop would be India. This subject had to be further studied, I thought to my self. To be continued...
Read MoreHer husband was rich and determined to be a film producer. He was a film noir lover and wanted her to be the star in the remake of a classic 1941 movie, "High Sierra", starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart. He also wanted to shoot the movie in an original location in the Sierra Nevada, the "snowy mountain range"... She loved those mountains. It was high and cold in High Sierra and it reminded her the time when she met the infamous "Mexican", a writer who became her closest friend. But that was all in the past... She indulged her husband because she secretly hoped that fate would bring him into her life once more. The Mexican was missing and he was always enchanted by the high, cold mountains of California.
Read MoreI 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.
Read MoreThat was the objective of yet another assignment, another photographic investigation. Once I found her and I completed my job, though, I realised I wasn't the only one looking for her. Of course once one realises that she is always hiding in plain sight, suddenly there is no need for looking. Anyway, she was here only temporarily, so I had to take advantage of that. I found out that she was heading to a place called Graceland and I decided to follow her there. This place is found in another reality and I didn't know if there was any energy left in me for all this. Time travel and reality crossing is exhausting, it depletes a photographic investigator's vital energy. One of these days I was about to complete my last mission, I knew that, maybe this one would be in Graceland, after all. More about that in the following blog post (if there is going to be one...).
Read More"Shy coffee" is a code name for a very common situation in the photographic investigation business. It informs the photographic investigator that it's subject knows that is being investigated, and that she also thinks she knows why that happens. So the subject acts with a certain kind of controlled shyness and openness at the same time, making the photographic investigator's work easy. Of course all this is just a decoy. She is being investigated for a completely different reason, one that she can't even grasp. But deception is all there is anyway, so to not be using it would be out of this world. This photographic investigator is not at all against that notion -except she has 2 faithful helpers to feed: the infamous Juanita & Lupe dynamic duo... The things we do for love...
Read MoreMiles 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...
Read MoreThere are many ways to communicate and a photographic investigator knows that, although she has chosen to do it through visual stimulation, images and mood, these are the most deceptive forms of communication. But the important thing is to keep the channels open, despite of the importance, truth or value of the message conveyed. The only way to do that is to keep communicating. What will actually be communicated at the end of the day, has very little to do with the photographic investigator's intention or the recipients conscious perception.
Read MoreA photographic investigator knows that her subjects, hypnotised by the shadows they create, they don't see the All Watching Eye in the projection wall. Doe's she try to alert them?
Read MoreMirrors are not always welcome but they are always there, in front of us. Photographically investigating what mirrors can do... Is it the same thing as meditating on the human experience?
Read MoreFrom 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.
Read MoreStar worlds are created especially for photographic investigators. For practice in between assignments. Their inhabitants are models, simulations, that exist only to serve as temporary subjects. Because a photographic investigator must investigate every day, Otherwise he starts to fade away. Literally.
Read MoreAnother Renaissance code name for another enigmatic and ethereal subject.
Read MoreAngelbirds have the ability to take human form and enjoy a morning or afternoon coffee in a coffee shop, their personality being best described as "lonely in a crowd". Having an angelbird as a totem usually means that spiritual advancement for the person in question is achieved by keeping distances from people, not in complete solitude, though. Relationships can provide valuable catalysts, in a sense that they accentuate the importance -and inevitability- of distance. Angelbirds are beautiful and graceful, they are described as the "ballerinas" of the bird kingdom and I was so happy that I had to investigate one. In it's human form, obviously. Which is not so easy... While I was investigating, the mystical sound of "Raven medicine" by Byron Metcalf was playing on my iPod... Mystical.
Read MoreIt was not too high (the fever), just enough to give me a splitting headache and to make my bones hurt. It was a tricky cold virus that one and I couldn't get rid of it. I had to cancel my current photographic investigations and stay home, re-investigating old cases. Like this one.
Read MoreThere 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.
Read MoreChasing subjects is an every day reality for a photographic investigator. And sometimes the temptation to just let them walk away without being investigated is too strong. Most of the times this photographic investigator resists, though...
Read MoreThe life of a photographic investigator can be "found" in or "described" by Electric Light Orchestra's songs. It's magic. So, today, I guess it's "Heaven only knows" from the album "Balance of Power": Now the sun will shine
And I'm gonna work it out this time
And before the light
All I gotta take is one more night
Heaven only knows, I'm really on the level
Heaven only knows, I'm trying to find a way
Heaven only knows, I'm walking down a straight and lonely road today
When a photographic investigator wants to get some specific effects on her photographic investigation, all she has to do is feed her subjects psychedelic cookies. They do the job every time.
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