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…
This 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…
“New foundations and new partnerships, celebrations and meeting with compatible souls”. This is the message that Juanita and Lupe, my faithful cat-helpers received and gave to me this very hot morning. It was the last day of June of a very strange and particular year and although the augurs of our times were conveying messages of dystopic possible futures, I was called to photographically investigate the absolute incarnations of boldness, beauty, wit and joy that were here -according to my helpers, who always know more than they reveal- to lift us up. This brought to mind one of the affirmations of Florence Scovel Shinn: “I now put to flight the army of the aliens (negative thoughts). They starve on faith and feed on fear”. Boldness is an expression of fearless faith that everything works for our good and beauty is an expression of inner harmony that helps us remain unmoved by appearances. Looking with the corner of my eye -like only photographic investigators can- I could see renewal smiling at us around the corner. She was most welcome.
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”…
The 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.
Another 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.
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…
A photographic investigator always has warm relations with people that most would call “unconventional”. Like -in this case- tarot readers and fortune tellers. It was in a meeting with a tarot reader that he pointed out that my spirit animal for the month of May would be the bat. I wouldn’t really know what to do with this information if at the same moment I were not browsing through one of my latest photographic investigations: the girl with the bat on her blouse. And then that famous sonnet from Shakespeare came to mind:
A photographic investigator is trained to spot angelic presences around the world and is always assigned -by her mysterious employers-to investigate them. The photographic investigation of this angelic presence took place in the garden of the Villa Herriot, in the island of Giudecca, in Venice.
A photographic investigator arrives at certain realisations sooner or later because they hate waisting their time -they are like this by nature. Yet they very often do. And they get frustrated. I mean, what is important is what you think of you. There is a law in life, the law of assumption. You are what you assume to be. Why not assume you are the person you would like to be -for a change? Just to see what happens… If you can’t help yourself how could anyone help you? And why should they… You operate your mind and your mind creates all that exists in your world. Isn’t it time to realise it and stop waisting your life day by day? I don’t know who said it but it made an impression to me: “Most people see life as bad weather: they wait for it to pass”. Maybe stop doing this now? Maybe shut the TV? Maybe stop paying attention to your mind chatter? Maybe stop recreating yesterday’s undesirable conditions? Just a photographic investigator’s suggestions.
A photographic investigator has always a keen eye for elegant fashion. In this assignment I investigated 3 women and their excellent, minimalist fashion statements in the 2018 Venice Biennale. Just in case you were wondering what to wear while visiting art galleries in Venice. Go shopping, be creative: good things are coming very soon!
Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa” wasn’t the portrait of Mona Lisa Gherardini, wive of Francesco del Giocondo. It was a portrait of Leonardo’s mother. And it was the only painting that Leonardo always carried with him, wherever he went. Of course, this is just another theory (although supported by the actual historic evidence) as only Leonardo knew the truth. But in the case of the modern portrait of Mona Lisa with the sunglasses, the model was alive and could be found. That was my new assignment. And I have managed to photographically investigate her without arising suspicions. Like all of us, she was closer to her original self that she could ever have imagined…
Very often a photographic investigator embarks on an investigative assignment after receiving a cryptic message or some kind of intuitive guidance. In this case it was a message hidden in a comment on a youtube channel. I immediately knew what I had to do and where to find my subject, although this would require another time displacement. But I was used to time travel and I had the time to replenish my energy, anyway, after so many months without inter-dimensional movements. So, no problems.
The morning just after another month of lockdown was announced, way before sunrise. Away from my subjects and without assignments, I was looking at older photographic investigations that I thought not successful. Suddenly, I found myself struggling to comprehend the expression “not successful”. Maybe they were investigations that I felt uncomfortable with, that I thought that they would not be well received -”by whom?'“, I asked myself. Or photographic investigations that I simply didn’t like or that possibly generated an unease, a discomfort in me. Just like I sometimes feel when I am confronting myself, at times of peace and silence such as these. When I am seeing my human condition. The human condition. Photographic investigations are really parts of the photographic investigator’s self, of her condition. Usually she is running away from some part of them, she is keeping them unpublished, she resents them, she puts them in the recycling bin. But the recycling bin recycles, it does not release or dissolve. This beautiful, peaceful morning, before sunlight made this bright star in the east disappear, I just looked at them and accepted them for what they were: a part of the human condition. Just that. And I realised that acceptance was working much better than struggle. And then I saw something vibrant, silent, beautiful and perfect. As is the canvas in which all photographic investigations are taking place.
An older, unpublished photographic investigation that became contemporary -in a way that only I know- under the light of Lester Levenson’s words: “We should have no wants. Then we are never in trouble.”
