The intensity of these days here in Italy have been quite incredible. I have been teaching photography workshops in Genova and they have been everything ... a privilege, a challenge, so much fun, exhausting, exhilarating.
They have been about people ... about breakfasts at Douce while sitting outside in Piazza Matteotti, about the occasional aperitivo at Caffè Degli Specchi, and fresh take-away pasta, with sauces and parmesan cheese bought from the kind people at Pasta Fresca Fabio, in Via Di Canneto Il Lungo.
Tomorrow is my first 'day off' since arriving but that busy-ness hasn't been all about workshops and people, it has been about the fact I arrived in the city relaxed and happy to be back only to have that moment of horror when I realised, quite late in the day, that I had forgotten to pack the power cord for my laptop. But you know that already...
In all my years of traveling with ridiculous amounts of equipment I have Never Ever forgotten my laptop cord. Nor my phone cord (only discovered when I needed to recharge my phone yesterday). I believe I may have left them on the same chair when finishing my packing at 4.30am that morning I left. Mmmhmmm, and those comfortable walking shoes I own ... don't ask me about how my feet were on Friday but honestly, never before has so much been left behind.
I was quite stressed when I flew. That much is clear. I believe I may develop some 'behaviours' as a result of 'the forgetting'.
But that aside, I realised again how much I love working with women on their photography. I simply love it! Often they have an instinct... a good eye for composition but a way of doing it all that somehow falls outside of the rules of 'technical'. And it is this that seems to make it so much more difficult for them to own their way of seeing and capturing the world.
I should know ...
I'm so delighted with the work my clients have produced over these days. I will publish some in the weeks ahead however tonight I must sleep so as to be up and out early ... for breakfast at Douce.
Ciao from this ancient city I consider the best in all of Italy.
