Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Day 438 - I Shoot Myself






While I was shooting her with the big camera, Soledad took the other compact camera and started to shoot herself...

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Day 437 - Soledad



Monday, November 26, 2007

Day 436 - The Fabulous styled ladies of "The Sartorialist"







This guy, Scott Schuman, is absolutely amazing and his site
- The Sartorialist -
is a continuous wonder!


Days 431-436: Morning light



Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Day 430 - Summer window

2007

Days 429/430 - Summer afternoon acalmy

Digital, 2007


Monday, November 19, 2007

Days 426/427/428 - Kitchen Blues

Friday, November 16, 2007

Days 423/424/425 - Dreams Of Summer Sea

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Day 419 - Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer

One of the biggest writers in the history, American novelist Norman Mailer died today at 84.

"Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is always living a little more or dying a little bit" - Norman Mailer


Day 419 - Herzog and Kinski

Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski during the shooting of "Aguirre, The Wrath Of God" - 1972

Werner Herzog about Klaus Kinski: "People think we had a love-hate relationship. Well, I did not love him, nor did I hate him. We had mutual respect for each other, even as we both planned each other's murder".

Day 419 - Romania

Romania. My country. A democratic dictatorship of a mediocre, retrograde, hypocrite and full of prejudices overwhelming majority over a small minority of good people. And this is happening for 17 years through the democratic principle of free universal vote. Romanians are masters in playing the role of good, hard workers when in fact they are doing almost nothing. A quantity with no quality is after all nothing. They are constantly missing the point and out of focus, but very proud of this - after all, the democracy gives also the freedom of foolishness.
The main characteristic of living in Romania today is the negative stress. It takes 100 more times, nerves and energy to do a simple, logic and normal thing than in any other developed democratic country. Yes, the country is beautiful, but the people are - for example - cutting and stealing whole forests just to be exposed afterwards to terrific natural catastrophes.
Of course that there are positive exceptions - but they are ONLY EXCEPTIONS. In Romania, normal is the exception from the rule.
Being a patriot today is not hiding the shit under the carpet floor, but speaking loud and clear about what's wrong and doing whatever you can to repair it, starting from your life, house, street, garden, family, job, circle of friends. Even starting with having the correct behavior while you drive your car in the traffic.
I go to elections every time not trusting any of the politicians. I always have to make my choice between the little evil and the big evil. I know there is no point in it, but I am still going. I am surviving here like a citizen living in the worst district of an famous and prosperous town with that hope that someday my neighborhood will be like the rest of the city. I am an European citizen now living in Romania - and until my country will reach the European standard, I prefer to say so. So, I am an European citizen, Romanian by origin.
I had many chances in the past to establish myself in another country. I decided to stay here, to INVEST MY LIFE here. I made a family, kids, I built a house, I work hard, I pay my taxes, I behave in the traffic, I go to elections, I helped a lot of people, I got very ill and miraculously get cured in the end, I was actively involved in the society life writing thousand of articles, hoping to make a point. But nevertheless I received back the same old shit. The respect I deserve was payed to me from abroad, from people that even didn't know how I look like.
And this happened only because they saw my work, my images.
I am not complaining, I am just telling you what is happening here.
For me, the true Romania was once and it is what's to come. Today is a mutant.
I feel like a sweet water marine animal forced to adapt and survive in salt waters.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Day 419 - Aspiring fashion model





Digital, 2006


Thursday, November 8, 2007

Day 418 - What I have learned (until now)

1. Good, True, Beauty. The problem is you cannot have all of them at once. One or two is always missing. More of that: Good is not necessarily True and Beautiful. Beauty is not always Good and True. True is not necessarily Good and Beautiful.
2. Life is about more than home, family and kids. It is about having a goal in life - a goal that once accomplished leaves behind you valuable things for the people to come.
3. True love is the love that let you live and be who you really are. If you love somebody, set them free. Turning somebody in the person you need is using that person. You are the sole responsible for you choices, don't blame the partner for not being what you thought it should be. You are always free to leave and to admit your choice was wrong, even after 20 years.
4. Kids are not angels. They are irresistible fascinating monsters - and you cannot do anything else but to love them and take care of them until they will no longer need you. You did the same to your parents. It is the most powerful, strange, cruel, perverse, irresistible kind of love.
5. The engine of life is the continuous search of pleasure as a medication against loneliness. Feeling good is making loneliness more bearable. And many times is simply placebo.
6. Happiness is not up to you. The pursue of happiness - the hardest part - is up to you and the result is called love. Love is something you build every day if you have the right terrain, the right materials, the right team, the right motivation, the right design, enough resources and a lot of luck. But love is not Heaven.
7. Love is not the same thing with being in love. Love is something you achieve. Being in love is something that is hitting you out of nowhere like a storm. And it could be only a summer light storm or a devastating hurricane. Being in love can bring after the storm hatred, disappointment, sorrow, tears, illness, bad or even evil. True love is never doing this. Being in love is often an illusion. True love is a certitude. And guess what? Is not for life. You can discover in the end that you don't longer need this certitude. Live with it.
8. Humans are not born equal. Every human being is an unique entity. Between unique individuals, unique relationships are established. And there are no recipes.
9. We are not meant to achieve the supreme Truth. We can only use utilities of Truth.
10. You can only do Good from Bad, because there is nothing else you can obtain Good from.
11. The biggest mistake of the human race is the illusion that there are several different Gods. There is only one God, no matter how you call it. Once they altered faith with religion, war begun. Religion did that to people, not Faith.
11. True faith is something else than religion and Church. Religion is the politics of Faith and Churches are its institutions. The problem is that this politics are done without the fundamental democratic principle of vote. It is an dictatorship that allows people to kill each other only because they see God differently.
12. What we have different must unite us in the same measure that what we have in common brings us together.
13. Fidelity is about spirit, friendship, admiration and respect between human beings, regardless of sex. It is not about flesh, lust and sexuality between sexual beings. The need for sex is the same thing like thirst, hunger, sleep, breathe... If you say "I am hungry" or "I am thirsty" is OK. But if you say "I need sex" then everything turns into a problem and people are looking at you as if you are ill or obsessed. There is nothing wrong in that. Having TOO MUCH of everything is wrong.
14. What, how and when you communicate is choosing you audience. And you got to assume it responsibly.
15. If someone stops being your friend then it was never your friend. And this is valid also for YOU.
14. Pornography is never about the depiction of sex. The real pornography is about ugly, bad, mediocrity, hypocrisy, "politically correct", discrimination, lie, hatred, crime. Blaming only the pornography is an excuse for all the rest. It is like this ferocious campaign against smoking, when the real danger comes from pollution. What's the point in struggling against smoking if we are killing this Earth every day with pollution?
16. A good, valuable, artistic image is the one that tells your brain and soul more that it shows to your eyes.
17. Sometimes radical honesty and seismic change are far more useful and good than "true lies", "diplomatic lies", lying by omission, positive compromises, compassion and all the rest. Nothing and nobody on this Earth can guarantee with no doubt that everybody must be saved in the end. And it is happening every day.
18. The image that a woman have about herself - in generally and/or naked in the mirror is completely different - and false - from the way other people are perceiving her. Mirrors and clothes are lying.
19. Woman is superior to man. They are complementary, but not equal. While men are born from women, women are born from women too. And a woman is always choosing with one second in advance, whether aware of this or not. If a woman admits to be submissive, is because it is her choice. Man got to admit it, understand it, live with it and relax. We are all sons of Woman. Man has no chance in life other then being the Queen's Chevalier and friend partner. Chevalier's sword can save Queen's throne, but the Queen can choose to have her First Knight beheaded. A very good chevalier is the one that in the end can convince a Queen to set him free, to release him from duty.
2o. A genial idea can be easily killed by an inappropriate way of presenting it or putting it at work.
21. Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think...

I wrote all above not to give you advices, solutions or recipes. I wrote it the because I felt like doing it and because this is my blog. Take it or leave it.

Thank you. And have a nice... everything.

Day 418 - Empty hours

Digital, 2003


Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Day 415 - Monsieur

Paris, between Jardin Des Tuileries and Louvre - April 2007