Thursday, December 6, 2018

African women

what if all your life you had been the mirror others could look into,
and then once, someone brought you a mirror to look at yourself?
(more to come...)

Thursday, November 22, 2018

she is but fierce

double click image to enlarge


Blue waters spread across as far as the eye can see. Deep dark blue, the kind of cold water that  touches your bones. On the other side lies a dormant volcano, and off-frame another. They watch over the lake like the king and queen of some underwater kingdom.


Three boys walk up from behind us. This is their turf and they have not qualms letting us know. Past us without even a second thought  onto the wooden planks. We are of no interest to them, the children however, are. Side glances  and total awareness of these foreign strangers that come in a different color set.  They are joking, fulling around to see who will jump first. And past them, the princess walks down the plank determined. She is but fierce and jumps in first.

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

family self portrait, Opus40




The family self portrait  project started in January 2011. 
I take one portrait of the whole family, myself included, once a month.  
In late 2013 a "ghost" writer joined the initiative and now each photo is accompanied by a poem.
In 2015 the kids started collaborating and introducing their own ideas
...the project has a life of its own

also,
Every family should do this. It's an amazing record of the little things that matter


To see previous months click on the links below:



2018

2017
2016

Monday, September 3, 2018

visual poems

fishermen returning home. Nouakchott (Mauritania) Fish market
click image to enlarge

Thursday, August 30, 2018

is my muse angry at me?


My muse hasn't been speaking to me. Not sure exactly when it happened. Not sure what triggered it. Don't know if I did something that pissed her off or if she just got tired of me putting everyone and everything else before her. I didn't even realize it at first. You know how it is. Certain people in your life, usually the most essential ones to your life, are the ones you take most for granted. So even if there was silence there was also the assumption that she was coming back. Out to get milk or something.

Eventually I started to notice the silence. The vacuum she was leaving where once it was fertile. The words stopped coming, but that's happened before. Sometimes she comes in consonants and vowels, others in colors and shadows. But this time I wasn't getting either.  I had no inspiration. Ideas came and went and nothing happened. They fell flat  like a bad quiche, never managing to live up to their promise, leaving a bad taste of half-cooked dough and the bitter knowledge that it is my fault, that I let this happen, little by little, day by day, every time I chose something else I was actively willing for this to happen. The world started to look flat, I saw nothing on the horizon.

I'd all but lost hope and was beginning to accept that maybe this was a part of me that belonged to my past, together with when I was a pirate on top of a tree house and other lives I've lived and died. But  sometimes life does throw you. Not always the most obvious form, in this instance when I went out of my way to support someone else's muse, and then -as if by magic- mine got jumpstarted.

I'm not entirely sure she is here to stay yet, but I am beginning to see new possibilities, direction, meaning to the colors, the shadows and the words. An image I cant quite make out yet is beginning to form, slowly, late into the night (because I had to prove to her that I was taking her seriously this time)


There's new hope in the  horizon  (to visit the new studies of the horizon series  click here

Sunday, August 26, 2018

blue dreams

Playa Cambutal, Panama.
From the Blue Series
click on image to enlarge 

Thursday, May 24, 2018

framed by nature, March family self portrait

Playa Venao, Panama
click on image to enlarge


The family self portrait  project started in January 2011. 
I take one portrait of the whole family, myself included, once a month.  
In late 2013 a "ghost" writer joined the initiative and now each photo is accompanied by a poem.
In 2015 the kids started collaborating and introducing their own ideas
...the project has a life of its own

also,
Every family should do this. It's an amazing record of the little things that matter


To see previous months click on the links below:



2017
2016

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

be still


There was a festival taking place. 
Promises of brightly colored ethnic dresses, possible face make up, music and dance ..... a photographers dream. 
But I was tired, so I stayed behind. I grabbed a rum bathed fruit drink and sat by the Caribbean sea lazily watching time pass me by. 

People came and went. The djins played in the background. And through it I sat, without expectations. 

 It was only because I was still. Because I stopped looking, searching, asking, finding. I stopped wanting and fearing. I stopped hoping and expecting -it was only because I was still long enough that the magic revealed itself to me. There all along, quietly and in the background, an entire festival of light was taking place. 

Right before my eyes the perfect picture.

Be still, every now and then. Remember to be still 
and let the every day magic that surrounds you  reveal itself.