These days, I am more aware of the impermanence of things.
I develop routines, find a place to live, have particular friends but always aware that these things are not forever.
Mr One went traveling for a couple of months and when he returned, he had grown and changed so many of his habits and routines.
I arrived in Italy and moved into the apartment I had been returning to since 2008 but then I had to leave. And I love where I live now, so much more but I had to let go and trust that things would be okay, even though it seemed impossible.
Winter was cold and I was ill but now it's summer, and it's so hot, and I'm loving that. It hasn't dropped below 23 celsius for weeks, not even at night but we have these occasional storms and so, unlike much of Italy, we're not experiencing drought. I love Genova's Fiordland-like deluges. I leave the windows open and listen to the rain crashing down.
I had a few weeks of wandering alone here in the city. Of days without shape or appointments. I was unmoored from life, quite completely. There was nothing and no one to hold me but I knew, that too would pass. And so, I very quietly, enjoyed that time of photography, writing and wandering.
I have found places, here in Genova, where the music is good. And musicians who are some of the kindest, most amusing, people I know. Spending time with them is so much fun. I hope to post video here soon. But that's a long story for later ...
And today, a woman told me she liked my writing, and that meant the world to me. Grazie mille for your kindness.
It's very difficult to take my work seriously. I'm a photographer who writes. It feels more like a kind of rebellion in this world where value is measured via income and social position ... this desire to seek out, and try to capture, beauty.
So it's another strange space I inhabit. I'm not anything respectable, like an accountant or a doctor. I don't work in an office or a shop. I only make art ...
But I love my life. And sometimes, when I go wandering, I turn at the right time and photograph a small boy gently touching a chandelier that is for sale in an antiques market, here in Italy. And that makes everything perfectly okay.
