Conformity ...

If you eliminate that private realm, you breed conformity. When all your behavior is public, then you’re going to do the things that the society insists you do and nothing else and you lose so much of who you are as a human being.
Glenn Greenwald, an interview with an interesting man.

I put this quote up on my facebook page today and it sparked some interesting conversation.

Women called by to comment, women I respect, and in the end we decided that the journey is the destination ...

It came up because we're all out there, either self-employed artists or living in countries not our own and the temptation, on the bad days, is to simply put down our passions, our impulses, our work, our funny little dreams perhaps ... to put them all down and turn back into that world where a weekly pay cheque is guaranteed and our souls aren't so tied up in our work.

But I suspect we gave one another courage and voila, I'm back at work here again ... in Belgium on a Saturday night but remembering that beautiful fountain in Italy.

And now ...

Chance encounters change lives.  Close friends, passing acquaintances and even characters who emerge from old books often leave footprints across my heart.  By opening mysterious doors, the influence of others has inadvertently altered the direction of my life.

Colin Monteath, extracted from Under A Sheltering Sky.

And now ... I am beginning work on a long-talked about book.  Years of ideas have reached a point where I must begin working with them.

When I walk on beaches, I pick up shells ... I'm a sometimes collector.  Stones too, when I wander along the edges of rivers and lakes.  Since I was small.

My photography, I think, emerges out of that same desire to collect, to handle, to pore over later.  But to collect, without ever stopping to enjoy, that seems somehow sad.

So here I am, commiting to this book, for months ... at least a year I think.  That is something I haven't excelled in.  I have so many ideas, so many passions, project ideas.  And I try to follow them all. 

These last two months have been months of insanely beautiful chaos and whimsical impulses ... of action.  People. Places.

But I must have been maturing somehow ... like a wine (I hope, avoiding the old and smelly maturation process we call rotting).  I feel ready to attempt to breathe life into a multi-layered story, using the words and images I have been collecting, to create a portrait of a place I love.

In my people portraits the intention is always about capturing a soul ... something of the true essence of a person.  Now to lift that impulse, that desire, and fit it over a city, over a region, and tell how place can capture a heart.

There will be a photography exhibition in December, here at home I am hoping.  A party.  And there are plans for limited edition print runs, postcards ... but woven so very closely into this book project that I think it will all work.  There will be a series of photography workshop beginning in Spring 2014, and I will leave my door open for one-on-one workshops too but mostly, I'll be here at the desk and working on images and ideas collected since 2008.

And so, here I am, announcing it ... the intention.  Now to work.

Street-Scene, Genova

Summer Days, Genova

I have a new toy and in these days where I recover from 'much', I am occasionally playing with photographs taken over weeks.

Roberto took me wandering through Genova, introducing me to this place and that.  And this was a place of much quiet beauty and grandeur.

Re-Entry ...

Sometimes, bouncing between worlds take more out of my soul than I expect.

Today I lay down after lunch and woke just before 5pm.  I am exhausted again.  There was France and another truly exquisite wedding.  A love so big that it melted my heart.

Then the Beautiful Truth workshop in Piedmont, where the people of Piedmont impressed me with their open-hearted welcome.  Their food.  And their wine.  I discovered Brachetto.  One of those discoveries of a lifetime ... or so is my story.

Then Genova, that city I love more than any other in the world.

And now I am home, doing the re-entry thing. It involves resting a lot, eating vegetables, resting some more.

There is a party to plan.  More travels perhaps.  My cousin.

It's like that.

And below, another image from the exquisite Ligurian weavers ... Cordani Velluti

Leaving Genova ... again

The floors have been mopped, almost all of the laundry is done. The rubbish has been sorted and dumped in the appropriate bins.  Supplies resupplied, wine not quite finished, and most of my goodbyes have been said.

I have loved being here in this Ligurian city again.  Six busy days filled with people and interviews, of photography and so much fun.

Blue skies were there waiting outside my window every morning, temperatures were warm ... 29 celsius

may have been the norm, although I wasn't paying attention in a deep way.

Genova makes me smile, my eyes open wider and sure, I am close to exhausted but these last few weeks have been ...intense.  The wedding in France, the workshop in Piedmont, the interview series here in Genova.  A huge cold that threatened to bring me to my knees was probably the worst of it.

Anyway, this is how I was looking on Monday. Still bemused by the fact that yes, if you teach a photography workshop then being photographed becomes the new normal.  Thank you to Sandy Millar, the photographer and woman who talked me through the agony that is being photographed.