Photo by lilypenelope

Photo by lilypenelope

Photo by lilypenelope

You are just a piece of Junk! Not because I think so but because that's where I found you, in a junk yard. I have a different opinion though on your identity essence. You are amazingly interesting. What is your story? Where did you come from? Who owned you? Who put you here? I wanted to take you home with me. Maybe hang you on my living room wall. To admire you, to imagine where were you before. But You are still in the Junk yard. The wall was to high to be climbed. I had to leave you there. Since ultimately you are just a piece of Junk. Unfortunately. But at least I have a snapshot to remember you. Photo by lilypenelope

There I was. In a Silent City. All I could see and perceive were endless stretches of no-one. Where am I going? South? North? Back into the past or running fast towards the future? As I kept walking along Avenue-of-Present-Non-Sense I saw a sign hanging mid-air. "This is Beyond Me" next right turn. Moving apathically I kept wondering what in the heck was this surreal disparaged space I was finding myself in. I frantically took another big breath of air and...air was all I got.
I glanced around scanning the Horizon for any sign of relief but...the city stared back at me.
Photo by lilypenelope

A walk on the beach. The city behind me. The horizon in front of me. Water in-between. The sound-{s} of nature. Thoughts are flying. In space. The end of Land - "Finisterrae", the beginning of a new "state": Imagination. Photo by lilypenelope

Photos by lilypenelope

4. As the number of days I'll be spending on vacation...starting today!!! See you all next monday!!
Photo by lilypenelope

Sometimes reality and dreams cross path. On that particular path I found myself driving couple of days ago! Curiosity told me to keep going on a road I've never experienced further than my own home at the lake so, since I had nothing much to do I took the car and kept going. It was a rainy day and spring apparently was playing hide and seek! Would I find it on top of the mountain? Maybe that's what drove me!! While I kept going up I found interesting things to shoot. Strange trees, beautiful flowers, rain drops on grass (post below) and, on top of everything my tripp was surrounded with the typical smell of nature touched by the rain. I kept going higher (on the mountain!). Til I met Fog! To be said: I love reading mystery novels. Especially scandinavian ones (Mankell, Nesbo, Indridason, Nesser...). For some reasons, the landscape, all of a sudden, appeared to be those narrated in those fantastic books. With one little uncomfortable detail: "what if the killer jumps out of the woods and stabbs me to death?". Yep, sometimes I wonder if I maybe dont read too much of those books!! A strange feeling started to appear: fear. No houses near by. Only those of German tourist who come in the summer. But hey I said to myself. This Fog is amazing. The landscape is surreal. Fear can be managed! Then, details of life/fiction started to appear. An abandoned truck with a swiss licence plate (and I was in Italy). My mind started to flip: "Oh geeeee. What is this doing here?" "Where is the owner?" Al this thoughs were spinning in my head and, I decided never to live the car but shoot my pics from inside!!!
Ultimately I got til the end of the road. In a huge land covered by fog. Only a sign was visible. The name of the area and its height. "Acqua Minerale 590 m" ("Mineral Water 590m". That's when My already freaked out brain started to lose it! What if this one was the perfect place for a murder? What if this was a great place for those authors to set their stories in? Then worse of all.... "Oh geeeeee....what if this would be the perfect place for a real murder??" Seriosly I needed to come back to reality! While I turned my car a strange last (messed up) thought crossed my mind: "What if the (fictional) murderer just jumps out from the Fog and.... "Swiss architect found dead on top of a mountain in the region af the Lake Maggiore. Her body was found in "Mineral Water"". Yep...that would make the headline!! But would people ask "Who was she?" Or "Was the water sparkling?".
Photo by lilypenelope

The third castle of my city. The one that is situated above the other two. Alone here I stand, at the beginning of the street that will take me towards this beautiful medieval construction. No one around. Just me, a light and a road towards the past. Photo by lilypenelope

Outside from a window all I can see are other windows. Openings. Frames to/for the outside world. Double voyeurism? Hidden behind a tree we look. We dream. Our own thoughts. Our own feelings are framed. Into the window of the unconscious. Photo by lilypenelope

A planned city. Streets, boardwalks, lines, crossroads, buildings and numbers. I wasn't sure where the original old city centre was so, I started walking on "Main Street". A Post Office. A Newstand. A Starbucks. A restaurant owned by an italian family from the neighborhood. A park where young and old people were spending their beautiful saturday afternoon. Yet something was missing. Where were all the stores I remembered being there once? Probably moved to the suburbs. New structures have appeared. And many other left to their own destiny. New and decay. Gentrification and sprawl. Traffic. Yet I found human presence. Man made structures. Geometry and well thought out plans. Where am I going? Where is urbanism going? Photos by lilypenelope

Who are you? Where are you? What's your [hi]-story? I'm looking at you from above. The sky flaneur. And I'm wondering. And my mind is wandering. Where are you going? Towards the future? Back in the past? Or are you simply stucked in this present? Photo by lilypenelope

I kept walking as the night followed me like it was my own shadow. I stopped, admiring the beauty of history reflected on the dark water. Then I saw it, the sign. Pont Neuf was right in front of me. My memory flew back in time. When I fell in love. I started dreaming, imagining, improvising new thoughts. That's when a strange sound hit me. Was somebody following me? Or was it simply the sound of the night with is dark presence, kidnapping my soul? Photo by lilypenelope

Inside the Versailles Palace. Beautifully adorned. Maybe too much. Thinking about the inner reality. Keeping in mind the outer one. Rich vs poor. Kingdoms vs. humanity. Details. Beautiful colors, incredible works of art. Yet keeping in mind what happend outside this realm. Photos by lilypenelope

"The Subversion of Images" as the title of the exhibition I saw at the Centre Pompidou. In this photo just a subversion of an image! Image depicting a fragment of the Centre Pompidou! Photo by lilypenelope

The city at night. Colors. Silence. Movements. My head is turning. Left. Right. What am I looking for? A thought that left my head without leaving a note? A dream that flew away through the city's floating soul? Photo by lilypenelope

City are such complexes artifacts. We know most of their [hi]-stories. We know most of their anecdotes. I love, when in a city, to explore its deepest meaning[s], it's multiple faces, facades, smells, sounds, and any other detail that, ultimately, creates my comprehension of it. There is nothing though, in my opinion, more fascinating than roofs. As I always say, rooftops are the city new beginning. A new groundfloor. A new history.
Looking at these two particular pictures I took from the top of the Centre Pompidou the word "uncanny" comes to my mind. It's true, each neighborhoods, each streets, each building, has a precise history, in time, in politics, in society. But what about the single inner stories? What about the inner daily chapters of these buildings? What is the [hi]-story line in their vertical presence within the urban context?
I love just to stare at these constructions and make up stories. Uncanny stories. About the people who live in there. About the people who, once they step out in the "outer" world, they step out from the city inner litterary composition. Photos by lilypenelope

First Snow! Happy and relaxed I decided to take my camera while going around with my sweet and extremely "intelligent" Dalmatian! My dog went totally insane playing in the snow right outside the house and...the leash broke! I'm not sure who had the most of fun but let me tell you...it was hard to catch the fool! Photos by lilypenelope

Photo by lilypenelope