The bill
This post, the last one before my trip to Afghanistan, is about being old and alone, about loneliness. For some people, unavoidable result of choices made long before in life. For most, consequence of life events capable of stealing all one’s beloved, one by one like leaves from a windblown tree.
We all, sometimes, think we can cope with loneliness and live happy, but I don’t believe human beings are made to be alone in the long run: whether a Neanderthal man or a polar explorer, if left alone, death would soon get you.
Sure, if we’re so lucky to live in a rich country and in time of peace, we may depend on social services and health care system. Yet, by sitting alone you won’t be having a great time and chances are you’ll get the bill faster.
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Dripping flags (and noses)
17th May, Norwegian national day (constitution day). Ask any Norwegian what they wish most for this day and they’ll tell you the same: dry weather.
Norwegians in Trondheim got quite the opposite this year: buckets of rain on their flags and national costumes. At some point I got the feeling that the happiest people of all were the guys selling helium balloons.
With a starting cold and awful weather, an hour out was more than enough for me.. Here a few shots.
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No more trains
Very different human stories, the same destiny: a subway station. Not as a short, noisy interlude between home and work or between family life and friends, but itself home, family, friend and only daily occupation.
Some of these people just kept missing the train of their life, the train that could have taken them to a regular office job or to the joys of a happy family. Some others jumped on many trains but were thrown off each and every one of them, humiliated like ticketless passengers.
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Invisible border
A couple of centimeters of glass can keep two worlds completely apart. It happens in prisons. It happens in the streets. I took this picture in a busy shopping street of Quartier Latin in Paris, in 2005. On the one side of the window of a fashion store, while their parents do some shopping, two children look at the unaware homeless man sitting just on the other side of the window.
A thin glass plate is the invisible border between young and old, rich and poor, symbolically separating innocent childhood and adult life at its hardest.
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Dummies
I’ve always been searching for new ways to make my life meaningful, to fill it with something worthy. And I’ve always felt little and insignificant comparing myself with those I admire, famous or completely unknown people who really make the difference for others as well as filling their own lives with things worth living for.
I believe that having a brain and a normally functioning body and living under the most fortunate conditions almost forbids us to just stand and watch, like headless, armless dummies. I have always dreamt of getting my chance to act, well knowing that my definition of acting requires either a particularly smart brain or guts, if not both.
Now, I have a chance. Engineers Without Borders need a geologist with landslide / avalanche experience in a remote province of north-eastern Afghanistan, where entire villages have been buried and hundreds of people killed by major avalanches the last two winters.
One of the dummies is tired of standing there and watching, and in a few weeks will not only try to help those people stay safe against avalanches, but hopefully also tell their stories in pictures. Stay tuned.
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Let me introduce… Gaetano
If you want to be friend of a photographer, you’d better love being photographed. Not once, not twice, but every time you meet him/her. No matter what kind of photographer he or she is, a wedding photographer, a street & documentary photographer, or even a macro photographer, you (or your nose hair, if he/she’s a macro photographer) will always be a favourite subject. A few hard facts of life:
A model costs money. You don’t.
A model expects from you photos to her/his personal portfolio. You don’t even know what that is.
A model can have a bad day and be difficult to work with. You are supposed to be there for your friend and smile no matter what (if you’re a friend, that is).
Now, having recently moved to a new town, I don’t happen to have many friends within the range of my lenses, which is why I have to get the most out of those few so lucky to be my friends. Gaetano, just like me, is a geologist, an Italian (italiano verace) and a newcomer to this town, and he doesn’t even mind being in front of my camera!! As well as being a great guy to talk with (and even a good listener), generally funny and entertaining but serious and philosophical when it takes, Gaetano has one of the most expressive faces I’ve ever seen. It will be therefore my and only my fault if my pictures of him at some point should get boring. Here is a little tribute to you, Gaeta’..
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1st April’s joke
Just as I thought I had been lucky this year, getting rid of snow and winther a few weeks earlier than normal, 1st April played its joke on me. About 20 cm of snow today..
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Murmansk region, Russian Arctic
I see that new page uploads are not notified to my many followers as new posts are, so here is a post to draw your attention to my latest travel reportage, or call it street photography in a slightly more exotic location, if you like.
Murmansk and its surroundings, in Northwest Russia. For many more photos of those places and people, and hopefully an interesting travel story too, check these links:
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Please take a seat
Sometimes you really come across bizarre things out in the street. This was one of those times, though more on the road than in the street.
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Turid
I was taking street photos, when I came across a nursing home that I didn’t even know was there. Just outside it, on a wheel chair, an elegant old lady seems to be enjoying some fresh air as she whaves me hallo. Then she tells me to be careful not to slip on the ice, how nice of her!
I stop to exchange a few words, and she promptly introduces herself as Turid. Without asking too much, I find myself knowing a bit of her life: a life long job at a hospital in Sweden, many years going fast, a move back to Norway after retirement, and now her new life, receiving that care that she used to give others.
I hope Turid is happy as she receives a couple of prints I sent her of these photos. She was so amused and flattered by my request
