Daniele Bora

Portraits/People

2012-01-10T16:11:00.001+02:00

I've added a few images to my portraits/people set on Flickr.

Have a look and let me know what you think.

and Stay tuned for more.

Danakil Depression, Ethiopia - Dec 2011

2012-01-06T12:55:00.001+02:00

Danakil Depression, Ethiopia - Dec 2011, a set on Flickr.

Two series of four pieces each. Soon to be printed, framed and hanged at the Itegue Taitu Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Interested buyers, please get in touch.

and Stay Tuned for more.

New in Design & Layout: Discover Ethiopia

2011-12-27T17:09:00.000+02:00

Fresh off the print, a brochure I've conceptualised and designed for Adimasu Tours, a tour operator company based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The usual triptych: front (R), back (C) and inner page (L)

Map of Piazza — historic Addis Ababa — scanned, hand-made collage and hand-writing

New in Design & Layout: A Thousand Gardens In Africa

2011-12-13T10:23:00.000+02:00

I'm working on the design and layout of a handbook written by Tichafa 'Green Warrior' Makovere, a permaculture expert and the Ethiopia country coordinator for Slow Food.

On the cover: permaculture veggie garden at Taitu Hotel, Addis Ababa.

A Thousand Gardens in Africa is a Slow Food initiative that promotes the creation of a thousand food gardens in schools, villages and cities of 25 African countries.

See the full set on my Flickr. The work is still very much in progress, but images of the first few pages can give an idea of what it'll look like.

Stay tuned.

Muizenberg Postcard Project

2011-11-11T12:40:00.003+02:00

An exciting live exhibition is in process as I write this in Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa. Brought to you by the peeps at Communitree.

The exhibition will run between Thursday, November 10 and Saturday, November 12, featuring a selection of postcards created by local artists and designers inspired by all that's Muizenberg: beach, white sand, surf, community, arts, good food and genuine, sun-kissed fun.

Below are the ones I have designed.

Africa in my mind, Muizenberg in my heart

On the walkway

The beach - photo courtesy of Joy-Anne Goodenough

On the walkway 2

Make sure to swing past if you happen to be in the area today or tomorrow.

and Stay Tuned.

Varie / Random Shots

2011-11-10T16:26:00.000+02:00

A couple of images I took in the last weeks when I travelled south and ventured in parts of the Omo Valley.

Note "Obama" written in Amharic characters

German minstrel

My early morning sini (coffee cup)

School children

Siblings under a leaf

More images on my Flickr here.

Stay Tuned

Briefly, Somaliland

2011-10-20T17:03:00.001+02:00

I've gotten back to Addis Ababa early this morning, around 8am, after a six-day-long roundtrip to Somaliland. Visa run mission: accomplished.

52,000 Somaliland shillings = 10 US dollars

It took me 24 harrowing hours to get back from Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, a journey that involved an array of means of transport: 1 Coaster, 1 (highly) shared taxi, 2 minibuses and 2 buses ... I'm knackered but it was worth it.

Street scene. night. Berbera.

Shipwrecks in Berbera's port

Shared taxi. prayer break.

Somaliland coast. deserted beach.

Early one morning.

More images on my Flickr here.

Also, I wasn't on my own this time, having found an awesome travelling companion in a young Polish/German free spirit named Magdalena. Check her own blog and pictures here.

Stay Tuned.

ps: in other, breaking, news, Muammar Gaddafi is reported to be dead.

http://english.aljazeera.net/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2011/oct/20/syria-libya-middle-east-unrest-live

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8838611/Libya-Gaddafi-dies-from-wounds-suffered-in-Sirte-capture.html

Dani hits the road again

2011-10-14T10:35:00.007+02:00

By the time you'll read this post I'll be on my way to Harar in eastern Ethiopia, and from there I'll cross into Somaliland.

Somaliland visa (15 mins to get one) and last available page on my passport

In the end I could not get hold of an Ethiopian work permit as per planned, so now I have to leave the country, get a tourist visa in Hargeisa, the Somaliland capital, and then come back to Addis Abeba as a "tourist".

Plans may have changed, but my time in Ethiopia is not over yet. I have a couple of projects I want to follow, both personal work and other bits and pieces for different clients. And the first engagement after my re-entry will be a trip to the Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia. Finally.

More updates soon. Stay Tuned.

Food photography - new in portfolio

2011-10-08T17:12:00.000+02:00

My new fad. Images commissioned by the Itegue Taitu Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Penne with tomato sauce

Risotto carbonara

Green tagliatelle

Vegetable pizza

Veggie shish kebab

Club sandwich

More images on my Flickr here.

Stay Tuned.

Permaculture display @ Taitu

2011-10-03T10:05:00.002+02:00

Featuring images of the Taitu Hotel's very own, organic, permaculture, veggie garden.

Sustainable food production in the heart of a big African capital city. A unique project as far as I know.

Part of Slow Food's A Thousand Gardens for Africa initiative.

Meskel_Addis Ababa

2011-09-28T21:50:00.002+02:00

Today Ethiopian orthodox christians were celebrating Meskel, or the discovery of the true cross by Saint Helena.

I was in aptly-named Meskel Square in central Addis last night with friends. Here are a few pictures.

Design + Layout: new in Portfolio

2011-09-24T08:39:00.001+02:00

Herbal teas menu designed for the Itegue Taitu Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

See the complete set of images from the menu on my Flickr.

And Stay Tuned for more.

Minneapolis Bridge Collapse image on New York Times

2011-08-06T14:53:00.005+02:00

I've just found out today that one of my images from the Route 35W bridge that suddenly collapsed in Minneapolis was published on the online version of The New York Times on July 4, 2009. Great!

The busy, 8-lanes, downtown highway bridge on Route 35W collapsed on August 1, 2007.

Read the NYT article about infrastructure in the US illustrated by my image here.
See my previous posts from Minneapolis here.

And please, do let me know if you happen to see any other stray image of mine somewhere on the Internet ...it'll be much appreciated.

my African journey: a year later

2011-05-12T18:00:00.140+02:00

A year on the road has gone by: 365 days ago, at around this time (6pm CAT), I was boarding a northbound Greyhound coach that whisked me away from Cape Town as the sun was setting on Table Mountain. It was the very first step, and the hardest, of a year-long journey across Africa and inside myself.

Muizenberg, May 12, 2010: the day my journey started

After a brief stop in Jo'burg, in the night between May 13 and 14, I crossed into Zimbabwe, then Zambia, Malawi, from there into Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, back to Uganda via the DRC (unofficially), Kenya, and finally Ethiopia. I had planned to be "home" in Italy by now, in time to celebrate both this anniversary and my 30th birthday on Sunday, May 15, but fate and my willingness to listen to its tantalisingly unexpected calls have decided differently: I've received a job offer in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city, and will base myself here for the near future.

So, my trip is on hold but not over yet, and I feel one day I will carry on from where I paused it, maybe with different means of transport, possibly along a different route. Besides, we all know that it's not the destination that matters, but the journey, and right now, even without moving, I feel like I'm still travelling, still exploring, aspects of life and myself that form that greater journey of my life.

Back to earth, I want to celebrate the year that has been with a selection of images of my trip across Africa from South to North along a somewhat tortuous route: fun, pain, excitement, loneliness, new friends and new love, so many emotions that are hard to describe, and so little space to tell the story properly. More pictures soon on Flickr and, possibly, Facebook.

Postcard from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

The Cape to Cairo pub: Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

By the pool at the Lake Kariba Inns: Siavonga, Zambia.

Drinking the ubiquitous Coke: Siavonga, Zambia.

Chipunga coffee farm: near Mzuzu, Malawi.

On my way to the Nyika Plateau: northern Malawi.

Sunrise over the lake from Livingstonia, northern Malawi.

Fresh, hand-roasted coffee: Lukwe, near Livingstonia, northern Malawi.

On the Tazara train to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

"Drive slowly slowly": Stone Town, Zanzibar.

Nungwi beach, north-western Zanzibar.

Lake Kivu: Kibuye, Rwanda.

Genocide memorial and church: Kibuye, Rwanda.

Blue lizard: Gisenyi, Rwanda.

No comment: the border between Rwanda and Uganda.

Artist DEStreet with young pupil: Kampala, Uganda.

Sipi Falls, eastern Uganda.

Crossing the Equator: Nanyuki, Kenya.

Inside a matatu: Nairobi, Kenya.

Football game: Kibera slum, Nairobi.

Approaching Lamu by boat, Kenya.

The road to Lake Turkana, northern Kenya.

Early morning bunna (coffee) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Hazy cityscape: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Wooden scaffolding: Debre Zeyit, Ethiopia.

Abba Libanos reading the bible: Lalibela, Ethiopia.

Broken-down bus and rainbow at dawn: Lalibela, Ethiopia.

Stay Tuned, and Happy one-year-on-the-road.

Ethiopia, take one

2011-02-05T05:22:00.004+02:00

And so I've finally made to Ethiopia. Two weeks ago. So far though, I hadn't had much time, or inspiration, to write a short entry about the country, what with getting used to it, my dad and brother coming to visit from Italy, and then readying myself to hit the road again. The latter is happening today.

Ethiopia is as fascinating as it gets, and Addis Ababa, its young capital (founded 1887), reflects and possibly amplifies all those aspects that one cannot help but love and hate at the same time: pervading filth, tasty food, and the sweetest juices you'll ever taste; material poverty, but a strong sense of ancient cultural richness; armies of beggars and hordes of Faranji-shouting, arm-pulling kids and touts; delicious coffee, and the all pervading smell of its freshly toasted beans.

Ethiopian take on a caffe' macchiato, National Hotel, Addis Ababa

The late Emperor Haile Selassie I

The view from my room in the centre of Piazza, Addis Ababa

A great specimen of a mango-avocado juice

Chldren residents of the Shala-Abijata National Park, Southern Ethiopia

Dabo, tradionally-baked bread

Gate of St Mary's church in Entoto Hills, Addis Ababa

Coffee ceremony: beans beiing slow-roasted

Addis Ababa at night

As I mention above, I am leaving Addis Ababa today: heading south towards the Bale Mountains, then back via Adama and on to Harar in the east of the country before crossing into Somaliland by mid February. I do this because my current visa is running out on February 17, and instead of hanging around Adddis and renew it, I'm planning to just get a new one in Hargeisa, Somaliland's capital city. I will be back in Ethiopia by the end of the month.

Stay tuned.

The end of the world: the desperation of Lake Turkana

2011-01-17T12:08:00.000+02:00

I’ve just come back to Nairobi after two weeks traveling around the western and northern parts of the country: Kakamega Rainforest over New Years Eve, then a stop over in Eldoret before heading to Maralal via Marigat and around Lake Baringo. From Maralal, a small, one-camel, frontier town (but not altogether unpleasant as far as remote African towns go) I’ve started the slow approach to Lake Turkana, A.K.A. the Sea of Jade, the prize at the end of a difficult and dusty road.

I’ve stayed two days in Loyangalani, a settlement made almost entirely of palm-tree-leaf huts plus a couple of basic shops and restaurants, a handful of run-down guest houses, and a big mission, before catching a lift on a southbound goods truck.

El Molo village

Only two days were not enough to explore the harsh, terribly dry, yet utterly and dramatically beautiful region around the lake. And neither were they enough to get fully acquainted to the general feel of desperation that pervades every street, every household, every soul, which is the desperation of not being able to feed oneself on a regular basis, the bitterness of going hungry in a country of plenty, the knowledge that if the rains fail again, as they did this last December, the problems will be maybe to big to endure.

Turkana women and child

The Lake Turkana region has always been a hard one for human beings: a volcanic, soda lake that doesn’t provide fresh water, a landscape covered almost entirely of sand, rocks and pebbles, and only a few, skinny, far-apart trees, soil that is not made for agriculture, major distances to any other major settlement, and no public transport.

Nonetheless people have been living here for thousands of years, and as part of the Great Rift Valley, it is here that humankind took its first steps, and the lake, even if not the idyllic body of water one can picture, has always provided its shore dwellers with the little they needed. For generations, this region has been home to several different, mainly pastoralist tribes: the Turkana, but also the Samburu, the El Molo (Kenya’s smallest tribe), and the Rendille, who now intermarry and live happily together. Sort of.

El Molo man outside his hut

And together they share this all-pervading desperation I’m talking about, a poverty that touched me like never before so far on my trip: it was everywhere, in people’s faces, in their tired eyes, in their thin and malnourished bodies.

A desperation that managed at times to make me uncomfortable, as I felt I was constantly being weighed in every interaction I might have to see how much money could be milked from me…every single price I was quoted was inflated, I had to bargain all the time, even more often than usual, and check my change which was short more often than not.

And yet I’ll remember Lake Turkana with a smile, and I am already longing to go back, once again lay on my back under the dark sky, a little breeze finally cooling down the air, lookat the bright stars and listen to the old but sweet voice of a Rendille grandmother telling stories from her past…and falling asleep feeling as if her words were coming directly from the stars above me.

The first day of my new year

2011-01-05T18:29:00.002+02:00

Kakamega Rain Forest, in western Kenya.

Stay Tuned for more.

Adieu 2010...Welcome 2011

2010-12-31T12:28:00.067+02:00

A long, sometimes difficult year is approaching its end, only a few hours left of this 2010 so full of hopes and dreams, but that turned out to be rather different from what I could have expected.

Worse or better? It's hard to say. It has definitely been an intense learning experience that I feel started even before, back in 2009 when I flew home to South Africa after spending the summer in Europe, came to its climax around March and April 2010, and got dramatically ripe in May when I decided to leave Cape Town and set on this Cape to Cairo journey of mine.

I'm now in Kenya, spending New Year's Eve in the peace of Kakamega Forest Reserve: not many people around, simple food, great hikes, and the opportunity for some good one-to-one time with myself, taking stock everything that happened in my life this year. Ups, downs, pain, loss and new light and purpose too.

Kakamega rainforest at sunrise, by Melanie Szirony

The end of year is traditionally a time of reflection, so here are a few thoughts I will mull over tonight and that I'd like to share:

I've just purchased my air ticket from Nairobi to Addis Ababa, my gateway to Ethiopia, the next country along the road...but am a little bit disappointed that I'm not traveling overland, the first time (and hopefully last) on this trip.
Said that, I've also extended my Kenyan visa, so I should have time to travel north to Lake Turkana anyway... just need to find a lift on a truck after Maralal I reckon, no public transport up there.
On a different note, it comes to mind now that last year I was watching the first sunrise of 2010 in Cape Town, on Muizenberg beach sharing a bottle of champagne with Claire...many things have changed since then, but am still here, a whole lot of inspiring extra experiences in the bag, and looking forward to another year worth living to the fullest.
Yes, it's been a roller-coaster ride this 2010: many ups and downs, thrills and chills, but in the end one of the most dramatic, life-changing, and min-opening I've had in a long while. For some time after leaving Cape Town in tatters I thought it was going to be my classic annus horribilis, but I have a feeling that I'm going to remember it as an annus mirabilis instead.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the Great Magnet.

What a fool I was to defy Him.

Never cross the Great Magnet. I understood this now..."

-Hunter S. Thompson

To all my friends and readers, old and new, near and far, I wish you a very happy beginning of a prosperous new year. Stay Tuned, I will see you on the other side.

An African Christmas

2010-12-25T00:01:00.024+02:00

Well, it's Christmas today, even if where I am it doesn't really feel like it...30°C as a daily mean temperature, deep into the Kenyan countryside straddling the Equator somewhere around Mt Kenya.

An African Christmas card..now on its way to Italy

The last few days have witnessed another shift in perspective, yet another lesson I've learned from the road and the way I'm going about this journey of mine. Something clicked on Wednesday, December 22, the day after the last full moon, which happened to coincide with winter/summer solstice...how often does that actually happen? Probably rarer than blue moons I reckon. Oh, and there was a total lunar eclipse too. But I'm not an authority on the subject, so I'll leave at that.

More importantly, I realised that I haven't been enjoying my time in Kenya as much as I could have so far. Since I've arrived on December 9, I've been rushing around between As and Bs, seeking the destination rather than enjoying the traveling in between...beside trying to sort out my visa for Ethiopia as I was talking about in my last blog post.

But on Wednesday, after my umpteenth email to the Ethiopian embassy in Pretoria was bounced, I tossed a coin: flying was the verdict, and I'll go with it. Suddenly the clouds in my head cleared up, and I saw myself jumping around getting ready for the road ahead. Even if that first stretch will be a runway rather than the sand tracks of northern Kenya.

Merry Christmas y'all ... Ethiopia here I come.

In Nairobi...thinking of Cape Town

2010-12-12T10:10:00.000+02:00

And so I've just spent yet another month on the road, today it's been seven (7) months since I left Cape Town and started my journey across much of Southern and Eastern Africa: May 12 to December 12.

I'm in Nairobi at the moment, trying to sort out my Ethiopian visa before the Christmas holidays...in case you don't know my predicament, which I share with oh-so many overland travellers I've met: Ethiopian embassies in Kampala and Nairobi are not issuing visas for onward northbound travel these days, so since I want to stick to the road and avoid flying, I need to

courier my passport to Italy,
have the visa issued by the Ethiopian embassy there,
then have the passport sent back to me...

hectic? yes...but this is also Africa, and very much part of the journey.

Muizenberg Village Street Fest Today!

On a different note, as the title of this post suggests, I am thinking of Cape Town today.
As we speak the peeps at Communitree are organising the latest of their renown Street Festivals in Muizenberg, the new, up-and-coming, arts centre down the Southern Peninsula.

The event's menu looks inviting, with scores of live music and painting, interactive activities, exhibitions, theatre and what not, so if you happen to be around town looking for something cool to do on your Sunday, look no further.

And once again, thumbs up to the creative minds of Cape Town.

0° 18′ 49″ N

2010-11-28T10:04:00.002+02:00

Up and down Africa, along a somewhat tortuous route, and crossing the equator one, two, three times, maybe more...an imaginary line that is, in the end, the most meaningful of them all. Will it be downhill from now on? ..It does feel like it in a way.

Below is a tribute in pictures to Uganda, a little great country, the 7th out of 14 on my African trip, and which has turned out to be a nourishing place for my blossoming new me.

Enjoy, and Stay Tuned for more.


Nyama choma (meat) sellers on a bus, between Kabale and Kampala.

Spoonbills and boats, Ssese Islands.


Mama Africa, Ssese Islands.

On an morning stroll, Ssese Islands.

Under the shade of an African tree, Ssese Islands.

Child from the village, name unknown, Ssese Islands.

Sunset over the bay and dugout, Ssese Islands.

The water as we pass (no colour added), Lake Victoria.

You and I in the morning, Kabale.

Jetty, Rotunda market, Lake Bunyonyi.

My postcards will fly, Kabale.

Street-side tailor, Kabale.


The Professor, Kabale.

Independence's not for everyone, Kampala.

A tale of three neighbours

2010-11-04T14:52:00.000+02:00

Uganda. Rwanda. Democratic Republic of Congo.
Three massively different nations, in size, history, and current state of affairs, they meet not far from the equator, in the area aruond the Virunga volcanic range.

Mt Sabyinyo (3,634m) seen from Mt Muhavura (4,137m), Uganda

Silverback and bamboo shoot, Mgahinga Gorilla NP, Uganda

Sorghum seller and her earnings, Bunagana market, DRC

Child and local immigration officer, Bunagana market, DRC

Photographs of genocide victims, Kigali Memorial Centre, Rwanda

Frangipani flowers, Hotel des Milles Collines, Kigali, Rwanda

In the limelight...at least locally

2010-10-29T12:42:00.000+02:00

From La Stampa, Tuesday, October 26.

The observer turns subject

2010-10-25T10:37:00.000+02:00

Somewhere in north-western Tanzania ...

The other day...

2010-10-16T14:01:00.001+02:00

Five months gone: a brief update

2010-10-09T13:46:00.001+02:00

So, it's been nearly five months since I left Cape Town: the World Cup came and went, I haven't kept my promises of updating this blog more often, let alone starting that new blogazine project I was talking about two posts ago....besides, I'm still in Tanzania, only the fifth on my 15-country, Cape to Cairo trip.

Pole pole they'd say in Swahili, slowly slowly, an expression that many non-Africans like to think sums up all that makes the continent not working properly. At least, according to Western standards.

But pole pole also means "gently, softly, quietly; be calm, take it quietly, don't excite yourself, never mind; take it easy."
Yes, things get done in their own time, sometimes they don't, but so what? Perhaps, it is us, busy little ants that we are, who should take it a bit easier, slow down and appreciate the time we believe we don't have, the opportunities we usually don't seize, the stillness we ought to get to know and honour.

...
And now what?

I am in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
I've been here longer than I had expected, but this another story altogether. I am finally ready to leave, and will do so after the weekend. The plan is now to head north towards Moshi and Kilimanjaro, to check it out but not to climb it, then west, reach Kigoma on Lake Tanganyka, turn north again and push through Rwanda, the DRC, and Uganda.
In December I will be in Nairobi, where, as I might have mentioned, I should have a gig helping out the guys at the iHub.

Apparently I am 2297 miles (3697 kilometres) from Cape Town and 2499 miles (4283 kilometres) to Cairo. Not bad. If I was going in a straight line.

Stay Tuned.

Where is Dani? ...my trip and the World Cup

2010-06-11T08:47:00.028+02:00

Today the 2010 FIFA World Cup begins in South Africa, and a month ago tomorrow my Cape to Cairo overland trip began in Cape Town. I felt it was time I'd write up a short update.

I am in Siavonga, Zambia, a sleepy little town on the northern shore of Lake Kariba. My trip so far has taken me through South Africa, but very quickly, then three weeks in Zimbabwe, an incredibly moving country that susprised me at every corner: Great Zimbabwe, Harare, Chimanimani, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls...finally I got to Zambia in the beginning of June, crossing over the mighty River Zambezi, and via Livingstone I've reached Lusaka and then Siavonga.

I am staying with an old friend of mine, an Italian volunteer who works in the micro-credit business. I rest, I eat well, I marvel at stunning African sunsets, I drink local beer...and that's pretty much all I do at the moment. Heaven!

But talking a little bit of World Cup, I've heard mixed reviews so far: some say it's madness of an electryfing kind, with colours and excitement, and others that it's quickly becoming hectic and weird. Discuss.

Something good is defnitely coming out of it though, as the picture below clearly shows, an example of public art sponsored by World Cup money. Happy days.

Football Mama, by Claire Homewood, Cape Town.

Stay tuned.

Africa calling: Cape to Cairo begins

2010-05-11T14:56:00.001+02:00

Yes, the time has come to hit the road again, and this time for an extended trip along one of the most fabled and classic overland routes: Cape to Cairo across 15 East Africa nations.

I've been dreaming about this trip for a long while, but after moving to South Africa in early 2009 I sort of slipped in a dangerous comfort zone that made me procrastinate for months. Up until two weeks ago I was still unable to decide whether I should stay or go, afraid of missing out either way: on one side I had this great journey in front of me, but on the other it felt silly leaving South Africa right when the World Cup band wagon is coming to town.

In the end, unexpected and rather dramatic changes in my personal circumstances turned out to be the encouragement I needed, after which a decision was easily made. I am leaving Cape Town tomorrow, Wednesday 12 of May, and will cross the border into Zimbabwe on Friday 14, a day before my 29th birthday. What a great present, huh?

From there I'll follow a somewhat windy route via Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somaliland, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, and Egypt. Or at least this is the planned route, but I know that changes will happen along the way.
Estimated arrival time is December, then I feel I should spend winter in northern Africa or southern Europe before making my way up Italy and get back home by spring 2011.

I am working on a new publishing project while on this trip, and will soon post a link here to a new blogazine that, at least in my vision for it, will be interesting in content and cutting-edge in design.
I am travelling light this time, with no mobile phone nor laptop, and will carry only my compact camera with me. I will be uploading images on Flickr and posting the occasional update on this website, so stay tuned and keep an eye on my movements.

Only those who risk going far, know how far they can go. -T.S. Eliot

Hustling my mind: of choices, writing, and other things

2010-05-10T12:08:00.004+02:00

So in the end my short story didn't make the cut and won't appear on Issue Zero of 48 Hour Magazine...bummer. Click here for a list of all contributors. The actual magazine will soon be available to buy from MagCloud.

And here's my short story, have a read through and please let me know what you think. It's a first, (self) published attempt at fiction — inspired by real-life events and people. Enjoy.

Hustling my mind: of choices, writing, and other things

The author didn’t know what to write.

He had been thinking about the subject the whole night, probably in a very dreamy, unconscious way, but surely he had. In the morning, after the alarm he had set for 6am, and which he had snoozed a few times, went off again at 8 o’clock, he was still sleepy. This time he pressed the stop button instead, but seconds later his eyes opened wide and he thought: “Why don’t I write about this, about my struggle to write anything true because I haven’t experienced enough? Not enough prostitutes, late night drinking, sleazy taxi drivers, gambling…not enough hard-edged journalism, cynicism, nosing around, and asking uncomfortable questions…I didn’t come across hustling per se, but I could write about my desire of writing something nonetheless, and describe the places where my internal struggles have taken me. Yes! That would be bold and true writing…wouldn’t it?”

Then he closed his eyes again.

The little demon of sleep that sits on people’s eyelids, and keeps them shut in the morning when one really ought to be up, was pleased. He, as usual, was doing his job properly and with immense gratification, assured of the strong pull that a snug bed and the warm body of a woman have on a man’s mind. But something today was obviously nagging at the author more profoundly. A big seismic event took place under the feet of our little naughty friend. He was surprised.

The author opened his eyes again.

“I could write about getting up after a late night, bummed that this project came up all of a sudden and I now find myself with this big conflict, really wanting to write this piece on one side but….why? Well, because it’s interesting, it’s innovative, it’s unique, it’s Issue freaking zero, and it’d be great to be in it. Ok, that’s my ego talking, but it feels good right now being here writing what I’m writing, which I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but it’s a start. Too personal? Maybe.

“The alternative that buzzes in my head and that makes me uneasy is the fact that I have other, more urgent stuff to write, but it seems like I hit a block of some sort. I wrote a couple of hundred words over several days and still can’t finalise even one single piece. I’m really sad about that because that project is interesting too, but it feels like my heart is not in it.

“Are my readers still there? I wonder, because I am writing about stuff that I know, you know? My issues as a person and as a writer. Ego and Self. My Shadow, ever present, but…”

The author stopped. This whole long stream of consciousness that came up and out of his mind is good stuff, true stuff, if fits the motto: Be bold, Be free, Be truthful. Is it art? Will he be universal while talking about a microscopic truthfulness…?

Then the phone rang.

The author hesitated because he was in the middle of a sentence. Mentally hustling a set of dice — because he was very curious after all and wanted to know who the fuck was calling at this time — he decided to answer.

“Wrong number probably,” he thought, and then hit the little green phone icon on his cell phone and said: “Hello?”

“Hallooo?” somebody said on the other side.

“Yes, hello?”

“___________”, an Asian-sounding voice said in an unfamiliar language.

“Sorry, I think you have the wrong number.”

“____________! _____________.”

“Yes, this is Dani, I’m afraid I can’t understand a word of what you’re saying, you have dialed the …”

The man hung up.

“Typical,” thought the author, but now his mind went back to the task at hand.

Again he wondered whether his readers would enjoy this little story: and how about the magazine’s editors before them? Let’s see: autobiography, about writing, personal subject matter, stream of consciousness…

”Still,” he thought. “It is linked to the theme, I know that, you know that, surely lots of people will feel that.

“And all that I written so far comes from a very true experience of mine: depression, darkness, writer’s block, and then help, therapy, hope, new strength, trial and error. Three pages every morning, it doesn’t matter what you write, or how you write, but only that you write. It is sort of a diary, but tackled first thing in the morning instead than at night, and never re-read again. It’s worked so far in unblocking my creative self, but still haven’t written anything worth publishing. Is that my goal?”

The author caught himself thinking aloud and stopped again. It felt like lines were getting sort of blurred here between author and subject of the story, the narration of the former, and the thoughts and words of the latter. “Is this ok?” he thought. “Will people get it?”

Besides, in talking about the morning pages he had been writing (almost) every day in the last couple of months, he had gone over today’s limit — three A4 pages that is — and now his pen was sitting somewhere in the middle of the fourth, or just before.

“I wrote four, sometimes five pages before”, he said to himself. “That’s not an issue, but I’ve stopped because I really am not sure on the direction this story is taking. Where did I start and where am I going to finish?”

He still had in his mind images of dice, coins, chance, and randomness that he and Jon had discussed the night before: follow coincidences, dare your lucky star, toss a coin and let it decide for you.

“Shall I do that now? Heads or tails to determine whether this story carries on or stops here?”

He hesitated.

He felt he was more afraid of a yes, a nudge to carry on rather than a halt. Because he didn’t know what to write. But he knew it would be a splendid way to end or continue his story. Very edgy. He wondered whether Luke Rhinehart had actually rolled any dice at all while writing his novel The Dice Man…

“Ok,” he thought after a moment, and got up to get a coin, a R5 coin, big and heavy, a golden disc surrounded by a band of silver. On one side a great African buffalo, its head down and thrust forward as if charging an invisible enemy. The word RAND stood out below the bovid, striding the line between gold and silver. That would be his tails.

He turned the coin in his hand and looked at what would be heads: the New South Africa’s seal, a big stylised bird, its long beak looking west, crowned, and with its wings spread wide and upwards, sitting on an elaborated coat of arms, a shield with people (natives?) in it, and spears, and a few barely legible words under it: !KE E: /XARRA //KE. Khoisan.

The nicest coin to hold, as South Africa is not as lucky as other countries, Britain for instance, when he comes down to coinage. “I miss Pounds,” he thought and then he tossed it in the air.

Oh yes, the buffalo will mean continue writing, clearly because the charging buffalo represents the stubborn determination of carrying on, even against all odds and one’s will. The national insignia on the flip side will mean stop writing, right there and then, because it’s the only other option left.

The author tossed the coin.

Fin

48 Hour Magazine - written today, published tomorrow

2010-05-08T21:43:00.000+02:00

I have just submitted a short story to Issue Zero of 48 Hour Magazine, an innovative experiment in publishing. The deadline for contributions is in less then four hours — 4pm PDT — so hurry if you're thinking about it.

The concept strikes for its simplicity: a professional-looking magazine is put together in less then 48 hours, from getting stories written and pictures shot, to edit and layout, print and distribution. The first 24 hours after the common theme is announced are open to contributions from anybody in any medium, then editors will spend another 24 to have a glossy magazine printed and ready to be bought on demand from MagCloud.

The topic chosen for the pilot issue is HUSTLE: "where the quick-witted trickster meets the Protestant work ethic." It looked fun so I took up the call. And so did over 1,200 other people, writers, poets, photographer, illustrators, chefs, and pirates I presume.

I can't wait to see the final product. And look forward to Issue 1 already.

Different takes on 3D modeling

2010-03-13T18:22:00.003+02:00

Today I've stumbled upon two very interesting examples of what levels has 3D modeling reached these days, and I'd like to share them here.

The image above is by American photographer and model maker Michael Paul Smith, whose work I came across thanks to this article on The New York Times.

Using scale-model cars mostly from the 1950s and ’60s, a few handmade miniature sets and his camera skills, Michael Paul Smith has created a town, Elgin Park, that exists only in photographs.

The accuracy and details that Smith puts into his work is breathtaking, and seriously makes the pictures of his model look like real-life shots: I've tried sending a couple of friends direct links to the Flickr slideshow and just one person realised they were models right away. Many of them also have real buildings, trees, and other objects as their background: these are usually at least half a block away to give the right sense of scale and perspective.

The image above is by Canadian 3D artist Stephan Brisson, who used Maya, mental ray, and Photoshop to conceptualise, design, model, render, etc. this fantastic place.

Here too, the sheer amount of details is striking — bordering astonishing — and many features clearly require a high level of digital skills: look at those air bubbles! See more 3D digital art (best of) on the Society of Digital Artists' website here.

What's also interesting is that these two very different approaches to 3D modeling have both an important part to play in today's art world. On the one hand you have the traditional take that we've all experienced, in a way or another, through miniature train sets and car reproductions: touching because so real. On the other it's intriguing to discover how much you can do with computer programs, some of them as popular and widespread as Photoshop. And with such beautiful results.

Design + Layout: new in Portfolio

2010-03-11T15:45:00.002+02:00

After moving to Cape Town at the beginning of 2009 I've rediscovered my design and layout skills, and after playing for some time with InDesign — and some Photoshop features I didn't know about — I've landed a couple of design jobs: books, dissertations and posters. Visit my portfolio on Flickr here.

Out of Sight for Justin Brett — art catalogue

Live music posters for The Melting Pot Social Club, Muizenberg, South Africa.

Blog Action Day 2009

2009-10-15T13:12:00.009+02:00

Today bloggers around the world will unite — virtually as they do — and blog about one topic, one cause, one hope: climate change can be stopped and reversed, because together we can do more than just scratching our heads.

Critics and skeptics will say that this is yet another waste of time and energy, like Earth Hour was, like the 350 Action Day may be. But we can't afford to lose hope, even though everything around us appears to be tinged with dark hues, and we feel like we're slowly sinking into an even darker hole. ...Yes, as you may have noticed, I an not the most optimistic example of the "we can do it" squad: I do see choices lying in a near future, and some of them will not be easy to make. I do also see different outcomes, and not all of them are positive. But if we do not hold on our hopes, and work hard to make them real, we might as well sit by the ocean with a can of imported beer, and wait for the tide to rise and submerge us.

Would you rather sit in front of your laptop and type away a few lines on climate change? Go on, share your thoughts, help your readers think, make them write. Make them hope.

Update: follow the topic on Twitter.

The time is always right to do what is right. ~Martin Luther King

Peoples: new on Portfolio

2009-10-12T21:00:00.010+02:00

How many people have crossed my path and left an impression? How many I've met during my travels and took a picture of? Below is a selection of images I've found browsing through my various archives, hard drives, and assorted discs. More here.

Stay tuned.

South Africa's Wild Web: bandwith theft uncovered

2009-10-02T11:08:00.010+02:00

I guess the post's title explains it all. But for those of you who want some extra details, here's a brief summary of the events: on September 19, I've signed up for a ADSL account and connection with South Africa's national ISP Telkom*. Ten days later I had (allegedly) used up all my bandwith allowance, i.e. 5GB. Today is October 2, and it seems like nearly 900MB have already gone...incredible!

Above: bandwith usage in just over 24 hours, in which no films, live streams, Skype video calls, or system updates were downloaded. I wish I could download that much by myself! (Click to enlarge)

After emailing Telkom and receiving no support, no acknowledgment, no nothing, I've scanned Internet forums and found this thread: a little dated but still current. The same topic was in the news sometimes last year: the article argues that modems of many brands can be easily hacked. Move number 1: change all passwords, not only wireless router — as it is unlikely the hackers are doing their things just outside my porch — but also modem and Internet account.

I hear people suggesting the uncapped Internet would solve this: is that the case? Discuss, both on this blog and on #bandwiththeft and #internetcap on Twitter: do you have a similar story? What is it like in your own country? Are you also capped or do you enjoy unlimited connection?

Stay Tuned.

*Also know as Hellkom in certain circles, for reasons not directly related to this post. For now.

Afrika Burn 09

2009-09-26T11:05:00.007+02:00

Afrika Burn is an annual South African event inspired by legendary Burning Man in the US. Mission: creating a temporary sub-culture centered on gifting, radical self-reliance, and genuine creative expression. Find out more on here.

On the move again: Europe to South Africa

2009-08-12T09:58:00.003+02:00

Here I am at the end of my stint of European Summer, all packed and ready to fly back home to Cape Town tomorrow. If two ideas I had didn't really materialise in the end, a couple of exciting, new projects seem to have surfaced and I will be looking into them soon.

In the meantime, below is a short selection of images from Italy:

Stay tuned.

Pay-for-News online: the debate intensifies

2009-08-10T10:49:00.008+02:00

A very quick note to add on yesterday's post. I've just found this brief analysis that Adam Westbrook has published on his blog, which, image apart*, is rather spot on, and builds on Jay Rosen's argument being debated on Twitter: #gopaywall The message is: let's do something. Whatever it is, wherever it'll take us, "let's just do it."

Future Of Journalism, by Adam Westbrook

View more presentations from Adam Westbrook.

Stay tuned for more and read on, both here and here.

* Nothing wrong with the picture itself, but I personally see the roads ahead of the media industry being a lot more and way more obscure and different from one another. A maze really, an intricate labyrinth that crisscrosses the vast plain of the future of journalism. On a dark, moonless night.

Pay-for-News online: the next big thing?

2009-08-09T12:19:00.011+02:00

Alternative title: how the industry is looking to the future with newspapers wrapped around its eyes.

The days of tough decisions seem to have finally knocked on the doors of media barons the world over, and these stalwarts of 20th century-type news-making are squeezing their brains to find a viable solution to their worries, a brave new business model that will save the God Newspaper.

But why bother? And why going down a route that many media commentators point out as being kin to suicide, a misjudged effort that "will backfire on the newspaper industry, putting it at even greater risk than it already is"? (1) Recently the American Press Institute (API) delivered a report to a summit of media execs in Chicago, in which it states that "paid content is the future of news website." See here for full story and click on image for the full report.

Among other things, I find a couple of the report's findings hugely explanatory of the attitude towards innovation of today's news world's elite, i.e. pressure Google into paying news organisations to aggregate their content according to a Fair Share policy, and create a "paid content wall" to retain print subscribers. So ultimately, this is what it comes down to: a holy alliance against the search engines to prevent the propagation of copyrighted material, and a last, desperate attempt to save print operations.

The "doctrines" (2) above are based on the assumption that only by asserting copyright on a product you can protect revenue, so if anybody wants to access what you do — articles, photography, essays, analyses, etc..— they will have to fork out money. To explain this to the layman, engaged media people often use this example:

What we do is a product, and we are are like any other professional who wishes to be rewarded for their work, becasue you wouldn't dream of not paying your doctor, the plumber, or a shop-keeper, now whould you?

Which is a very reasoned argument and all. I myself am trying to make a living out of writing and shooting pictures, and am a firm believer that freelance services should be paid. But today we, as media practitioners, are not only facing a steep learning curve as we quickly adapt to a more demanding audience, we also increase our communiticative potential by getting to know and using new tools that have opened our work to vast audiences in the first place. Google is one of these, both for individuals and large news organisations, as it sends 1 billion clicks a month to news websites — that's 400 clicks a second. (3)

Setting up and hiding behind content walls is clearly counterproductive in today's digitalised and globalised news world, as it does only perpetuate the ancronistic concept of the newsman as gatekeeper of precious, almost classified information rather than as facilitator of a borderless conversation aimed at sharing knowledge. See Cody Brown's analysis of what happens when "the news product" is privileged over "the news process."

Furthermore, if the proposed wall contents get implemented as a last resort to prop up ailing print operations — as API's report seems to suggest — news organisations would really show how little they understand the Internet reality. Sad as it may be, traditional outlets like newspapers are a dieing breed and it is about time to see radical innovation for what it really is: the only way forward.

Social media are setting the pace of 21st century's media revolution and have become the dominant players in news-gathering, news-making, and news-sharing. In this context, new, cutting edge ways to generate revenues must be investigated not only by large news organisations, but also by individual media practitioners (4), because, as Ken Doctor highlights, we ultimately need to achieve two goals: "maintaining the free flow of global news and information and figuring how to pay people to create journalism and other useful content we all need."

Both at the same time.

ps: Follow the debate launched by Jay Rosen on Twitter: #gopaywall

What a Persuasive Technology Psychologist Can Tell Us About Paying for News Online. By Steve Outing
Quoted from API's Newspaper Economic Action Plan via PoynterOnline.
API's Newspaper Economic Action Plan itself acknowledge that 25 to 35 percent of traffic to news websites comes from the search giant and its Google News.
Who could become true one-man shows, by mastering skills as diverse as writing, film editing, online publishing, programming. See here on Computer Assisted Reporters.

Social media: changing daily and here to stay

2009-08-05T10:41:00.010+02:00

It seems like my previous post has attracted some interest. I woke up this morning after a 'refreshing' 6-hour sleep and found a number of new messages in my inbox: all new Twitter followers. About 20 of them in just a few hours, which for a social-media-rookie like me is no small thing.

The above statement might actually need to be rectified a little, i.e. I'm not completely new to social media as such. I am a longtime user/abuser of Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, and various IMs. But just recently I've got into them like never before, linking my accounts and profiles, digging and bookmarking all sort of things, writing about social media...playing the game basically.

It's addictive, ever-changing, hugely interesting, and I like it a lot.

Not all of this is just form and mindless fun though: social mavens know that Web 2.0 savvyness — brave marketing strategies, innovative design ideas, powerful networking — needs to be combined with original, solid content to make the magic happen. And I'm trying my best to follow this simple, yet not well defined, rule.

With that in mind, I was chatting with a a filmmaker friend from London yesterday, and flooded him with excited opinions about the future of traditional media such as journalism, filmmaking, and photography*. What is a working business model we can aplpy to our activity without selling out to the ad-man? Copyright and Creative Commons, new technologies and old habits, subscription versus donation models, one-to-many communication versus many-to-many conversation...all this came up. And boy, it was an animated chat.

Needless to say, we did not really reached a satisfying conclusion. Is there anybody out there who has? Confident enough to share it? Please get in touch. The way I see it, new technologies will need to be combined, as they appear, with important content, the type that is often neglected in a show-biz-orientated society like ours. We are witnessing the "largest increase in expressive capability in human history" as Clay Shirky says in his TED talk above. It is the biggest opportunity for the true liberalisation of media channels, and it is time to raise the standards of news.

I personally have a couple of ideas, and I will research them and try to implement them soon, stay tuned on this space for updates.

*Journalist and commentator Charlie Beckett talks about networked media as the future of the industry in his Supermedia: saving journalism so it can save the world.

Social media old and new: a bubble ready to burst?

2009-08-04T11:05:00.009+02:00

Being able to witness and experience new Internet tools as they happen is a rare thing by definition. Last night I was lucky enough to catch the wave and ride it for a while before, as some commentator is already warning, it will crash on shore like the dot com bubble did.

Twitter is over capacity - was something big going on last night around 11.30pm CET?

Technology, both at its software and hardware ends, is moving so fast that new applications and platforms get developed on a daily basis. And while some are good and stick around while many just don't cut it. A rule of thumb seems to be that users will deem useful and readily adopt those that simplify, in one way or another, our hectic Internet lives: RSS readers that gather news from different sources, and desktop aggregators of Twitter and Facebook updates are good examples of this trend.*

The two social media giants have until now being at the helm of this mini-revolution, and the sheer number of enthusiasts they are able to muster today makes any initiative worth noting. Below, for instance, is an example of a multimedia, Internet conversation that was happening yesterday at 4pm PST (1am CET) thanks to the guys at Mashable.

Mashable's Ben Parr interviewed Zappos' CEO Tony Hsieh live on video chat, and live on twitter: while listening to the back and forth about social media, people were able to tweet their comments and questions. Which is a pretty cool concept if you ask me.**

Even more difficult is to create brand new platforms in what seems to be a overly saturated market: this is the case of new-kid-on-the-block Knoyce, but also of next-big-thing-elect Google Wave.

Not much is yet known to common mortals outside the developers' world about the above projects. The lenghty presentation of Google Wave (see end of post) at Google I/O 2009 — the Internet search giant's annual conference in San Francisco — gave us a glimpse of the dircetion they want to take, and would like humanity to follow them on: they call it a revolution in the e-mail concept, I see it as a development of their Gmail conversation model. Eagerly we await: here’s the #googlewave on Twitter.

But can we make of Knoyce? Did you even ever heard of it? Promising to be "not only a [new] social network, but a new trend to follow, a new word to say, and a new site to see", it launched today at 12am EDT (6am CET). Problem is: nobody is really talking about it, and the whole thing looks like more of a marketing stunt than anything else — their promotional video devotes a whole minute to examples of page customisation, and branded apparel is already available. #Knoyce on Twitter.

Going back where we started: are we really in the middle of the next revolution, a change so quick that is hard to follow and judge its meaningfulness? Or is it just a weak, ever-inflating bubble that will burst soon leaving us with nothing?

Remembering Darwinism...Stay tuned.

*Like the following: Google Reader, NetNewsWire, Tweetdeck, and Seesmic.
**Ok, to be honest, not everything worked out perfectly: sound quality was bad — Tony's mic was scratchy, and Ben's voice was non-existent — plus Ben didn't find easy to interview and read the endless incoming tweets at the same time. It can be improved but the bases are there.

What good comes from the past?

2009-08-02T18:03:00.009+02:00

There are many different options available to anybody that would want to answer this question. I've heard them all, and I thought hard on every single one of them: the past is what you are, it defines you. Or, the past doesn't exist, nor does the future, and only the present is real. The past is where you committed mistakes that you can now learn to avoid. Etc, etc...

Footprint and seagull feather. Luderitz Peninsula, Namibia.

All of them are partly true, and aspects of each of them resonate within me. But today, a new thought emerged, and it sort of rocked the lazy calm of my housebound, stormy, hot, summer afternoon.

The past is painful, it is no more, and it is everywhere. It smiles cunningly, and seduces us deep inside our hearts, while at the same time deriding us for our petty longings.

Gloomy? Well, yes, I can tell you it wasn't a cheerful five minutes after I elaborated the above thought, but lately I haven't found much room to hide this kind of sentiments regarding all that I left behind, all the moments, the encounters, the laughs and the cries, the travels, the loves, the parties, the friends. All gone. Furthermore, when for any reason I don't like what I've become, I experience sadness, self-criticism, and discomfort. I feel stuck, and problems begins.
Needless to say, acceptance is the key, even if, as human beings, we can't get over what we've done and wonder endlessly how we could have done it differently. If we believe that our past defines us in some way or another, at least it isn't wasted, because we now use those experiences, and what we learnt from them, to be who we are, possibly a better, more complete, and understanding person.

To go back to the question that started the post then, can there be good in the past? Memories, I believe, can be good, as long as we are detached enough from them. My road trip around Namibia in April was a good time, and I want to remember it that way.

Moon rising on the Spitzkoppe, Namibia.

Collective nest, near Aus, Namibia.

Sunrise on the Naute Dam, Namibia.

Below is a short poem I wrote today about it.

Namibia's dusty roads,
Namibia's blue skies,
It is hot and sweaty days,
Cool and windy nights.

It never ends, it never stops,
not a soul for a hundred miles,
on and on you drive on straight roads
next to you your companion smiles.

Wake up with the morning sun,
Bade farewell at night,
Sunset is nothing but a pause,
In Namibia's blissful light.

I miss now hot and sweaty days,
Cool and windy nights,
Namibia's dusty roads,
the daily promise of blue skies.

Click here to see more images from Namibia — don't forget to select full screen mode on the bottom right corner of the page.

Summer special: death by twitter

2009-07-20T15:20:00.009+02:00

I have been back to my Italian home town for a few days now, yet another road trip completed successfully. But this time my old Land Rover Defender just made it: leaking steering pump, quasi-dead steering box, dry ball joints are just some of the issues. The vehicle is not in good shape and needs some costly TLC, but how can I retire it with endless roads still ahead of us?

© Claire Homewood

In other news: Summer weather is gloriously hot and sunny, and I have quickly sunk back into the laid-back attitude of Italy's backyard. A little frustrating since things really seem never to change here: food, drinks, trips to the mountains. More food. Mostly this is how I spend my days.

Lazy? Never. It feels slightly different. I was talking about it with a friend just now and, how did I put it?... yes:

"It's like being at the end of Summer holidays, when in September you don't want to go back to school. You haven't done your homework and you're worried of having to get up early once again."

Plus, saying that I do don't much with my time wouldn't be true. I've done some picture editing and lots of tweeting.

End of day at the local bar - Cenicientos, Spain.

A drink and a laugh - Cenicientos, Spain.

Noori - Avignon, France.

Bicycle bell - Barcelona, Spain.

A late afternoon walk - Barcelona, Spain.

Man praying - Barcelona, Spain.

On my way back

2009-07-11T15:38:00.016+02:00

So time has come to leave this oasis of tranquility and get going again. The trip back to Italy will follow a well-known route: from Barcelona through the south of France — Languedoc and Cote d'Azur — across the Alps into Italy, and then north towards Biella.

Fran and Trabucco the house donkey — Cenicientos, Spain.

The following are a few images of the last week or so.

Girl and dog playing in the Abbey's courtyard — Cluny, France.

Noori, my favourite baby girl on the planet — Avignon, France.

1789 remembered — near Carcassonne, France.

Entering Andorra on a fine day — Pas de la Casa, Principality of Andorra.

Metro station — Aluche, Madrid, Spain.

Circulo de Bellas Artes: the other side — Madrid, Spain.

Spot the difference — Madrid, Spain.

Holding hands on Paseo del Prado — Madrid, Spain.

Cloud 1 — Some place, Europe '09.

Photoespana 09

2009-07-10T17:35:00.006+02:00

I am still in Cenicientos, a small village in the Madrid region, a mere one-hour drive from the Spanish capital but a whole lifestyle away. Rural, simple, and very quiet.

The other day, my good friend Federica and I went to visit our old friend Gwen, a lovely French girl who's lived in Madrid for the last 2 years, and while in town we had the opportunity to see a couple of the many exhibitions of this year's Photoespana.

Firstly we saw the work of German artist Gerhard Richter, some 400 overpainted photographs taken during personal trips and family occasions since 1989. See the complete series here.

After that we went to see Annie Leibovitz: a photographer's life 1990-2005, a great exhibition of more than 200 images shot by one of the most acclaimed portraits photographer of our times. And indeed some of the pictures displayed are such unique and true works of art, in which Leibovitz conveys the signature familiar approach with her subjects.

Finally, we quickly looked at a couple of exhibitions held at the Circulo of Bellas Artes — Club of Fine Arts: quirky images of shop windows in the 1930s by Chzech artist Jindrich Styrsky (On the Needles of these Days); a small retrospective of portrait photographer Patrick Faigenbaum (Photographs: 1974 - 2008); a film on urban China by documentary photographer and filmmaker Zhao Liang (City Scene).

Of traveling

2009-07-02T16:24:00.007+02:00

It occurred to me the other day when I was crossing the English Channel — La Manche in French — that traveling is a lonely business. One can love and hate being by oneself, and being alone is both a curse and a blessing that often occur at the same time.

Postcards of Cluny, quaint little town dominated by what remains of its grandiose abbey.

Even when traveling in a group of people, be they close friends, simple acquaintances, or strangers met for the first time at the beginning of the trip, one cannot help but being somewhat introspective, feeling that they can enjoy it as well as fret about it. Travel than become a true journey of self discovery, of varying proportions and impact.*

I personally experience the full impact of this when I am on a road trip and am driving, then it really does not matter if I am by myself or I have somebody sitting in the passenger seat, as I can very easily drift off and begin to wonder: about the the road ahead of me or the one just left behind, about new and old work ideas, about projects, people, friends and foes. Driving as a Zen-like activity, this is how I came to see it. Very much like cooking, it is an activity that feels natural and calms me down to a point where my mind enjoys a serene focus.

View Larger Map

I am in Avignon in the south of France at the moment — pinpoint E in the map above — visiting some friends before they also leave for a road trip, and before I finally make my way towards Spain. They got in touch with me on my first day back on the continent, and in a minute my plans were changed. The idea now is to leave here tomorrow morning, get to Barcelona first, spend the weekend there, then see my good old friend Yoga Dhara near Madrid and spend a few days with her before beginning my long(ish) journey back to Italy.

Stay tuned — more pictures soon.

*I envisioned quoting from Jack Kerouac's book Lonesome Traveler here, but I haven't gotten hold of a copy yet. Please feel free to add any thoughts or extract from the book if you've read it.

A few images

2009-06-24T23:15:00.011+02:00

...so that you don't forget I'm out and about. Current location: London.

Low clouds on the pass du Petit Saint Bernard between Italy and France.

The town of Ettelbruck in Luxembourg under the rain.

Local bar, Montreuil, France.

Untitled, Montreuil, France.

Sun rising over the ferry terminal, Calais, France.

Approaching Dover's white cliffs.

A serious road addiction

2009-06-18T16:59:00.004+02:00

I've been back to Europe now for more than a week, in Italy since last Saturday: it is time to begin a new journey.

View Larger Map

It will probably take me two or three days to get to the UK, I will spend some time in and around London, and finally make my way south towards Spain, Barcelona, Madrid, and long-forgotten friends.

My new website is almost ready, and am now just taking a step back from it for a couple of days before making it live. I will keep you posted on the move, even if this blog will still be available for some time.

Stay tuned.

Web rebranding in progress

2009-06-08T14:57:00.004+02:00

As hinted at some time ago, I will soon make a transition from this blog to a new website that is better suited to my products.

Please bear with me while I undergo this process. It will take some time, especially because I am leaving for Europe tomorrow, and I will be mobile more or less all the time I'm abroad*. But it will happen. I also have another couple of projects and ideas up my sleeve that I am going to look at and develop in the coming weeks. As usual, stay tuned on this page — or through my Facebook NetworkedBlogs ap — for updates.

*A Rough plan is as follow: fly to London, then Italy, then drive to London, carry on to France and Spain, and from there back to Italy. Similar in a way to my trip last summer, but this time I'm setting off on my old Land Rover for very different reasons.

Of traveling in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa

2009-04-29T12:04:00.007+02:00

I am currently on a road trip around Southern Africa on my old VW Fox: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and back to South Africa. Make sure you keep an eye on my movements by visiting my travel journal. Stay Tuned.

More images on my Flickr photostream. Enjoy

G20 death: UPDATE

2009-04-09T15:21:00.004+02:00

A London Metropolitan Police officer "identified himself to his team leader as being potentially involved in the incident shown on the video footage", Euronews 24 reported today. Good news, the chap has shown to be a man after all — seven days and an incriminating video after the incident, as duly noted by the Scotsman.

On a slightly different note, off-beat watchdog Boing Boing has promoted the remix challange to raise awareness and counteract the ludicrous, new 'anti-terror' campaign run by the Met. The image above is an example of the mock posters, make sure you check the other ones, some of them are pure genius.

Video reveals Police involvement in G20 death

2009-04-08T15:51:00.006+02:00

In a turn of events that is the dream of every newspaper editor, The Guardian has obtained a short video that shows a Police officer attacking a passer by minutes before he dies during London's G20 protests.

City of London’s newsagent Ian Tomlinson was walking home from work on Wednesday, April 1, when he found himself caught between riot Police and demonstrators near the Bank of England. After collapsing on the ground — and allegedly being succored by Police medics despite being “pelted with missiles believed to include bottles as they tried to save his life” as reported by Sky News — Tomlinson stumbled away and died of a heart attack soon after.

The incriminating footage is part of a dossier that The Guardian has put together and presented to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which also includes a collection of testimonies from witnesses. According to many commentators — see here, here, and here — the episode is only the last dramatic testimony of the way Police forces in the UK have recently been dealing with demonstrations trying to challenge estranged political and financial classes*.

Early Police statements did not acknowledge any misbehaviours committed by officers on the ground during the clashes, and, as the Sky News example mentioned above, mainstream media were quick to pick up the down-with-these-noglobal-rioters line. The worst of all was The Evening Standard**, which carried a (now) unfortunate double-page spread with a rather dramatic — but completely off the track — headline.

Fortunately, an amended article is now online here, and the ES actually carried this article on today’s edition.

Also, IPCC Commissioner for London, Deborah Glass, admitted that “witnesses” have reported Police involvement in the incident. “It is important that we are able to establish whether that contact had anything to do with [Ian Tomlinson’s] death," she said.

*See also what happened at the Nato Summit held in Strasbourg, France on April 4 as reported by Current.
**London’s widest-distributed daily newspaper has recently been sold by its historical owner, Daily Mail & General Trust PLC, to Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB spy. Strange as it seems it could be a much-needed boost to liberal journalism in the British capital — see here for details.

Earth Hour: some afterthoughts and criticisms

2009-03-31T12:32:00.006+02:00

The last couple of days have seen a huge media reaction to this year’s event, and news items, blog posts, and commentaries responding to the increased public awareness could hardly be counted.

The Cape Philharmonic Orchestra perform a concert powered by bicycles, Cape Town, South Africa.

In South Africa, power utilty Eskom claims that electricity demand dropped 20 percent after 8.30PM, saving 400 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere. See here for more details.

Around the world, the Philippines topped the Earth Hour participation with 647 cities and towns, and in Ireland the equivalent of 700,000 lights went off for the hour. Toronto, Canada, saw a decrease of 15.1 percent in electricity demand, and for the first time the United Nations turned the lights off at their headquarters in New York.
More data will surely be available soon here and here.

But the power of Earth Hour does not reside in its mere efficacy, and the number of energy saved will never be its ultimate goal, nor it would be enough of an environmental action if it were. As many critics were eager to point, switching lights off for an hour — no matter how lights you have in your house or how many people around the world actually do it — will not knock the global carbon emissions down. In fact, many (see also here) argue that if we account for all the energy spent to advertise Earth Hour, CO2 production actually goes up…and if we use paraffin candles, we won’t be doing a favour to the planet either, according to the Physical Insights.

Some extremists have arrived to the point of instituting counter-events such as Hour of Power — in which participants are encouraged to turn all their lights on — still believing that global warming is not a man-made threat. Fortunately balanced and constructive criticism can also be found out there, and here you’ll find a particularly good one. Here is another, if shorter, example.

The message sent was indeed a strong and clear one: change starts from small gestures. Symbols can be a powerful tool, even if they cannot actually righting wrongs overnight — nothing ever does that, not even the best thought-out government policies…especially those. Earth Hour may well be a tiny spec of dust in the massive sandpit in which climate change is dragging us, but is undoubtedly showing how millions of people can still be aroused behind a cause they believe in, and strive for a common goal they judge achievable, making them participants and co-creators of a more sustainable future.

If symbolism is all there was left to Earth Hour, I would still sign up to every newsletter, petition, and call to action that bore its logo. But maybe is also time for a renewed mass-participation in local and global politics. As Kim Carstensen, the leader of WWF’s Global Climate Initiative said in her post-event statement: “Last night’s message from the masses was loud and clear: Delay no more, real action now!” The message is directed to the world’s representatives who will meet in Copenhagen in December for the UN COP15 summit on climate change. And they are our representatives after all.

NEED on TIME.com

2009-03-29T11:26:00.007+02:00

Congratulations to my friends at NEED magazine for scoring yet another editorial and marketing success by having a set of images from one of their recent feature stories published on TIME.com.

© Andy Richter/NEED magazine

American freelance photographer Andy Richter’s reportage of the Starkey Hearing Foundation was originally featured on NEED issue 5 —soon fully available online here.

Specialists audiologists, who volunteer their time and skills to the Minnesotan-based organisation, visit and assist thousands of hearing-impaired people in countries stretching from the U.S. to Vietnam, delivering more than 50,000 hearing aids annually through more than 100 hearing missions a year.

© Andy Richter/NEED magazine

28 March 2009: Earth Hour - 3rd edition

2009-03-25T12:46:00.009+02:00

It has been a year already…hard to believe but alarmingly true: time to prepare for the upcoming event then. …Many of you must have guessed that I’m not talking about my birthday, which I do not particularly care for, but a rather more important global happening: Earth Hour.

Earth Hour encourages public participation through small scale, individual actions: by switching off all lights and superfluous electrical appliances at home or at work for an hour, between 8:30 and 9:30PM local time on Saturday, March 28.

Created by the WWF and started in 2007 in Sidney, Australia — when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour — the event quickly spread to most major world cities, with hundreds of landmarks, thousands of organisations, and millions — 50 of them in 2008 — of people taking part. In a city like Bangkok electricity usage decreased by 73MWh, equivalent to 41.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Christchurch, New Zealand, reported a drop of 13% in electricity demand. (Source: Wikipedia on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Hour)

The goal in 2009 is to reach a billion participants: a billion votes, according to the organisers, for Earth, and against global warming, a powerful message for the world’s representatives who will convene in Copenhagen in December to discuss climate change at the UN COP15 conference.

Related possibilities are, as usual, infinite: environmental website TreeHugger for instance suggests that if Google were to switch from a white to a black homepage for good, it would save about 750MWh a year. See here for full details, and check this Google-powered search engine called Blackle.
On a similar note, ecoIron, a blog that provides reports and commentary on all aspects of green computing and sustainable technologies in IT, calls out to all web designers to think about the environment in their work by using Energy-C, their low-wattage colour palette. So we won’t even have to decide between monotonous black websites and saving the planet.

I personally made my choice some time ago when I first launched this blog of mine, but to be honest I was more concerned about style and professional consistency than anything else…would I have swapped to white, maybe even only for a day, if that had meant saving energy and send a message at the same time? Probably. Would you? Or do you also think that this is only greenwash?

The important point here is to understand how change can be achieved through means that are rather effortless indeed. The simple gesture of switching your lights off for an hour has the power to show that several small individual actions contribute to the achievement of a much larger goal.

We can all do something: the future is in hour hands, or in this case, on our fingertips.

Virtual Padrini on Facebook

2009-01-14T20:32:00.006+02:00

The moment I’m about to leave the sleepy grip of Italian winter an interesting controversy regarding freedom of thought, the mafia and the Internet giant springs unexpectedly up.

Just before the end of the year, articles in Italy and the UK sounded a note of alarm regarding the sudden proliferation of pages and groups praising former Mafia bosses such as Toto’ Riina and Bernardo Provenzano. Their creators were obviously eager to follow Facebook’s very own marketing device: a friend (of Cosa Nostra) is a fan.

International news organisations, blogs, and commentators quickly picked up the story, before it finally crash-landed back on Facebook — whose Italian operation has been the fastest-growing in 2008 with a whopping +961 per cent. Here it spawned a number of counter-groups that are now lobbying the network’s admin to censor these “Mafia apologists” and remove the pages they’ve created, or else they will leave Facebook en masse. Tens of thousands have subscribed to several groups and are now well on their way to top the 100,000 mark.

The biggest breakaway group — 58,000-strong at the time of publishing, up from 39,000 in only one day — has set an ultimatum for Sunday, January 18, and is asking its member to stick to it, noting that they represent a sizeable part of the 4.5 million Italian users — but not 10 per cent as the group’s creator claims.

Facebook’s bosses have so far excluded they will take any action, with spokesman Matt Hicks stating: “The controversy is not a good reason to proceed with the removal of the groups.” As noted in many wall posts, Facebook recently forbade the posting of pictures of breastfeeding women considering them too explicit, a decision that now seems even more controversial.

However, the really interesting aspects of the walls’ discussions is that they have not simply been one-way denunciations of ignorance and poor taste, but informed posts and replies about freedom of thought and expression in the age where king among mass media is the Internet.
They asked questions such as: do we want the Internet to be free and unregulated so everyone can assert their own opinion? If so, are we ready to accept some that we may find inappropriate and offensive? If not, where do we draw the line, what is permitted and what isn’t?

Others pointed out that leaving Fecebook in protest against their somehow nonchalant policies will do the cause no good, completely leaving the scene to the Mafia enthusiasts — who care not a dime if the networking site ‘allows’ their opponents to set up anti-Mafia groups.
And I feel to agree with this because I believe in total freedom of expression in any medium, mitigated, if necessary, by certain circumstances and the author’s own sensitivity. But also because I’ve done some maths: several groups praising Toto’ Riina and Bernardo Provenzano count, all together, 1,813 members — at the time of publishing —, a tiny spec of dust in the giant’s eye if compared to the overwhelming support mustered by their counterparts.

Below are a number of links referring to the on-going controversy as reported by various media outlets. Enjoy the read and feel free to join the debate.

English:
Fury as Mafia godfathers idolised on Facebook - Times Online
Pro-mafia Facebook pages cause alarm in Italy - Reuters
Facebook Mafia confronts actual Mafia on facebook - BBook.com

Italian:
Su Facebook il gruppo degli ammiratori di Toto' Riina - Walter Gianno
Padrini virtuali, Facebook e la demonizzazione di internet - Visti da Lontano
E Facebook non chiude il gruppo a favore del boss Riina - Corriere della Sera

Future | Solid Foundations | NEED magazine

2008-12-31T17:51:00.005+02:00

NEED magazine has published its latest issue featuring a story of mine about an American aid and development organisation called CHF International that works, among many other places, in the Balkans.

See the whole reportage here. Read the story here (Synopsis only, full story available soon). All pictures by Maciej Dakowicz.

Squatteurs De Luxe — SPRAY

2008-12-17T15:30:00.009+02:00

Million Dollar Squatters get published again, this time with a French touch on up and coming style magazine SPRAY.

All pictures by Alex Masi, for English or Italian text contact me. Both available to be syndicated for further commercial use.

So easy even a moron could use it!

2008-12-14T16:50:00.009+02:00

The future of reading is just a click away according to the founder and CEO of Amazon, the Internet retailer riding a year-long success of the gadget that might change the way we read books, magazines and newspapers, the Kindle.

Jeff Bezos is still as enthusiastic today about Amazon's pretty creation as he was when it was first launched in the US in November 2007. See what he and a number of American authors have to say about it in the video below.

The Kindle is a wireless reading device, in many respect similar to other devices already available such as mobile phones, PDAs and laptops; their point being to bypass the ageing publishing and printing industries and tend to all our reading necessities in a digitised version.

Why is the Kindle being hailed as such a revolutionary innovation then? Well, because it is.

We've all seen and tried e-books and audio-books before, and most of us have the possibilty today to use these media on a daily basis instead of the old-fashioned paper books and newspapers. No more messying around on public transport, no more cumbersome tomes to carry with us, no more cheap ink on our fingers. Heaven, right? Not exactly. For many reasons, some technical some definitely Freudian, none of the solutions we have been sold works for us, and so we kept to our beloved dog-eared pages.

But the Kindle is different. Its developers seemed to have worked harder to tweak those features that really would make Amazon's gadget more similar to a book than any other reading device before. Paper-like screen, light weight, and ergonomic design that resembles the appearance and readability of a book; wireless capabilities, a huge memory, online back-up, and built-in dictionary makes it stand out. Read the full specs here, plus reviews and interviews, a list of titles already available, and much more.

Watch this for an independent review of the Kindle.

So is the future of reading really a click away?
A New York's City Journal article — whose author is admittedly already in love with the Kindle — asks: "Will the Kindle replace books as we have known them since the beginning of Western civilization? Will downloading replace browsing at the bookstore? Will books follow the vanishing species of CDs and DVDs?"

Good questions. The answer I believe is no, it won't. Or not entirely at least. Maybe new books in a near future will only have digital versions, perhaps many old titles will go out of print, and surely any new way of reading — be it the Kindle or soon-to-appear even better devices — that finally improves on printed paper will take hold.

But I believe we are still very far from a total replacement because of the simple pleasures that make reading a book, a magazine or a newspaper so unique: the feel of different types of paper, the smell of it, the hand-written notes on the margins, the cover artworks, browsing a bookstore, etc., etc. Call me a reactionary fool, but wasn't supposed to be the same story with records, tapes, and why not, also banknotes, and bicycles? Sure, they might not be the devices of choice anymore, but they are still around, and I dare say, prosper as niche products.

Dani's final word: don't wait for the moment in which Kindle owners will roam victorious the world's airports, train coaches and waiting rooms, as it will be easier than what you expect to still hear the rustling of pages and scribbling of pencils.

The (Free) Press? Bilingual, please.

2008-11-18T12:10:00.010+02:00

Things never turn out to be what they seem initially, and this is pasrticularly true if friends are involved. Last night I happened to get together with an old pal who, instead of filling the time it took to prepare a delicious chicken tikka with casual chit chat, introduced me to a new exciting project he's been recently busy with.

© Marko Manico

The name's aljarida — the newspaper in Arabic — and you will hear more and more about it as it takes its first steps into the publishing world. It is a free, quality, monthly publication, completely bilingual and produced by a mixed team of dedicated individuals, that is stirring the free press market down in Milan, Italy, and has been the talk of the town since issue 1 hit the newsstands earlier this month. Read it fully here.

aljarida's target audience is primarily the growing arab and arabic-speaking community of Milan, but also every Milanese who appreciate to be living in a city that, thanks to the abbundant opportunities it offers, is a strong magnet for immigration. Which, in turn, is a golden opportunity for social and personal growth.
The founders' goal is to highlight the common ground present between the indigenous Italian culture and the one brought by our North-African and Middle-Eastern neighbours, study how they influence each other, elaborate a common language comprehensible by all, and foster wider understanding in the process.

aljarida is innovative in content and aim, but also in style and design. It is the first free sheet to be feature every article of every section in both Italian and Arabic, the two versions facing each other and indeed almost blending to create a unique visual impact, and a formidable tool for the study of both languages.

Another striking feature: the paper opens horizantally, like a calendar, so it is instantly accessible to Italian as well as Arabic-speaking readers — who read from right to left and open their publications back to front.

My last word is dedicated to the group af activists, journalists, and scholars who brought about this idea, support it and contribute to it seeing it as the natural evolvement of their social activities. They are the backbone of an association called MEDInaTERRANEA, born to promote the "exchange of information between members of different communities, and the creation of spaces for dialogue through the media, literature, music, and art."

If you want to get in touch, email them at info@aljarida.it

News to brighten up your winter

2008-11-01T14:08:00.005+02:00

Winter is definitely upon us in all its coldness and wetness, but for once we won't have to look out too hardly to find some good news coming our way from the publishing world.

NEED magazine, the American humanitarian publication I contribute to was eventually rescued from premature death and is fully back in action: the much delayed Issue 5 is out now in the US. Unfortunately it is not normally available (yet) in European bookstores and newstands, but you can order your copy here if you wish to do so.

NEED's Editor in Chief Stephanie Kinnunen.

You can also read all the stories featured in previous issues — plus a brief introduction of the ones coming out on Issue 5 — on NEED's website.

And if you really can't wait until peeps at Borders finally decide to stock the magazine in the UK as they are already doing in the States, contact them here.

I will talk more about NEED's Issue 5 as soon as I get hold of a copy myself, and will also upload a couple of tearsheets of the story I've written for them from the Balkans about an organisation called CHF International and their micro-finance projects.

On a somewhat less exciting note, you might have noticed some little changes I 've made to this blog. It is not a great deal, but if you look at the top of the page, just below the masthead, you'll find a new quick link section, which I hope will ad some extra spice to readers' browsing — especially new visitors. As I mentioned in a previous entry, it is part of a medium-term drive to move my operations to a "real" website, a goal on which I'm still working on.

Stay Tuned

Opportunities: available now in a small provincial town near you.

2008-10-09T12:19:00.008+02:00

I've been in Biella for a few days now, and am still deciding if I really want to call this the 'final' destination of my summer trip, knowing that there is not such a thing and this can only be a new starting point, the prelude of a new trip, the dawn of a bright day still to come.

Sunrise on the dunes of the Erg Chebbi, Morocco.

Nevertheless, I feel I have to decide at least some of my next moves, and the most fundamental one at the moment is whether or not base myself here in small-town Italy for the next couple of months. I know it will be a time of research and preparation work that can easily be carried out anywhere, as long as I have a quite space and a good internet connection, but I still feel uneasy thinking at how grim and unexciting this place can be. On the other hand, London is always very close to my heart and maybe could be inspiring to be back in town for a little while without having to juggle with home bills to pay, cats to feed, school papers to write while trying to became a pro...

An event occurred the other day might just have had that little something that could influence my decision.

Claire and I were visiting Cittadellarte, a local arts and design foundation that run workshops and sustainability programs, temporary exhibitions and a gallery with the works of founder Michelangelo Pistoletto. I've myself discovered it rather recently, and every time we are in town we pay a visit to check out the latest in Biella's artist community. And as you imagine, every time we both are pleasantly
surprised and intrigued.

This time we found out about the existence of an artist-in-residence program called Unidee, i.e. Universita' della Idee, or University of Ideas in English — a program that has been on since 2000 apparently...where was I?...sometimes I strongly doubt of my investigative skills.

Every year 20 international artists are selected to gather in Biella, kindly hosted at Cittadellarte [Italian for City of the Arts, ndr], where, between June and October, they follow lectures and work on their own project, sometimes by themselves and often in collaboration with fellow residents. The focus is on "Art at the centre of the Responsible Transformation of Society," a concept that has been central in Claire's own artistic output in the last few months. Applications for next year's residence need to be sent by November 10, and she is working on hers as we speak... in

This made me think twice about going straight back to London and I see how perfect opportunities, and I run the risk to be trite here, can truly lie where we wouldn't usually look for them. Above all it is what we make of them that surely counts towards personal success, something that is usually regarded as the final end of our strivings, but that today I dare to see as both goal and the process we undergo to achieve it.*

* For more on this, please refer to Eckhart Tolle's book called A New Earth.

Back to Europe. And to work.

2008-09-25T14:17:00.007+02:00

My traveling in Morocco has today come to an end and a new part of my Summer trip awaits me starting as soon as I publish this entry.

Work wise — some of you may know I traveled to Western Sahara to gather material for a possible story — it has not been extremely fruitful, and alas, I think I will need to go back soon...it was all due to a mixture of unfortunate circumstances and mistakes on my parts. I have learned the lesson and not all is lost.

But, while driving interminable miles mostly by myself up and down the country I had the time to do a lot of thinking, and I came up with what I think is a good and promising idea for a future project. Writing? well, not only, but yes, writing of a different type and in a different way...refer to the previous post to see where part of this inspiration comes from.

Something is cooking in the pot...

Regarding this I will now have to sit down and draw a proper plan of action, which I usually enjoy doing but to which I seldom stick...soon I will also discuss my idea with some of you in the real world to get your impressions, listen to your doubts, and ponder your advice.

To start with, who has any idea on how to draw a business plan? Any Business Plan for Dummies type of books out there?

Exploited in Palestine - The Freelance

2008-09-15T18:48:00.004+02:00

One of the pictures I took at a NUJ's London Freelance Branch meeting and that was published on the branch's own magazine.

Journalist and researcher Penny Quinton has carried out a series of interviews with Palestinian colleagues focusing on how they cope with the stress of working in a conflict zone, often for Western news agencies that lay them off if they get injured or wounded. This was the case of Osama Silwadi (pictured) who used to work for Reuters and now runs a photo agency from a wheelchair.

Browsing (in) Marrakech

2008-09-10T15:11:00.009+02:00

Moroccan kids from in a Atlas Mountain village, Morocco.

Another little update, still far from my goal of keeping this blog regularly updated, but for the moment internet is definitely not my priority...apart from today since I'm in Marrakech where I have found this little place called Cafe' du Livre: very much an expats type of eatery, but they have good wi-fi connection that I've been using all morning.

As some of you may know by following my trip on my travel blog, I have had several opportunities to think, ponder, reflect...about my life at present, my traveling around Morocco, and — somewhat more relevant to this blog — my professional future and ideas to make it into something that I can be proud of and happy about.

Peering around the corner in the village of Imilchil, Morocco.

Before leaving London at the beginning of August, I managed to meet up with a journalist and academic that I've always esteemed since working with him back in 2007: Charlie Beckett, the director of London think-tank POLIS. We chatted mainly about my career prospect as a freelance writer and photographer, and, among other things, he pointed out three things that he sees as the only alternatives to make in an increasingly competitive industry:

find a niche market and create a small but consistent client base, or
find a new product that nobody else is doing, or
find an innovative way to do the any of the above.

The last option immediately struck me as the most appealing and feasible, but in the last few days I've been thinking about an idea that will include number 2. and 3., and in some way number 1. as well.

Joyful epiphany and happy days!

For obvious reasons I cannot use this space, at least at this time, to say any more about this little idea of mine: its realisation, crossing fingers, is rather remote in the future, and some serious research work and proposal preparation will have to be undertaken...but I am saying already too much. Farewell.

Latest news from a forlorn traveler

2008-08-26T00:22:00.009+02:00

Some readers may feel that, after promising important changes to the nature and layout of this blog, I have slipped into the golden cage of summer holidays and forgotten about writing new entries.

This is partly correct, as I realise just now how distant I was until tonight from what should be my daily activity and pastime: nosing around, talking to people, asking questions, taking pictures and writing about it all.

In my defense I can say that I holiday also means shuffling around unfamiliar places on a regular basis, worrying about finding a place to stay for the night, attempting to drive those extra miles, and ending up sleeping in a parking lot or a rest area... arguably not the best conditions for jotting down thoughts, let alone uploading them on the internet.

But I sincerely hope this will soon change, or at least am confident that I have finally understood my priorities regarding my communication work flow while on the road. After getting hold of a good wifi connection at a camping site in the south of Spain between Cadiz and Tarifa, I have been updating my travel blog first, sorting out my next Moroccan move between drafts, and am now planning to have a look at this blog with some initial adjustments.

Once again, thanks for bearing with me and taking the time to come back to this page every now and again to check on me.

stay tuned

ps: check my latest set of photos from Tarifa, Spain here.

A new beginning

2008-07-10T18:20:00.010+02:00

Important changes will soon take place on this site, and I take the opportunity not only to announce them to my audience but also to write down this intention so that I won't be changing my mind at a later stage*.

These changes were long overdue and I see them fitting the learning curve I am negotiating at the moment, ie going from being a full-time student and semi-professional writer and photographer to Human Rights graduate and professional freelancer. A long and arduous road indeed...

A little background regarding my decision: I was out with a bunch of "talented individuals"** last night and for the first time in a little while I felt inspired and compelled to do some more writing, and above all to begin using this site more as a full-fledged blog rather than as a mere archive of my published work. I can highlight two main reasons:

1) Soon I will leave London for some serious traveling and was reminded that my travelogs during my time in the US last summer were quite good stuff. More of that seems a good idea to me.
2) Taking into account my medium-term plan to launch my own 'proper' website, moving things around and creating new ways to work with them should be rather inspiring.

Thanks in advance for bearing with me in the meantime and for all the precious feedback that I'm sure you can't wait to send through...

Stay tuned,

Daniele

The fine print:
*I do reserve the right to change my mind at a later stage.
**The "talented individuals", quoting one of them, are Alex 'the usual suspect' Masi, Magnus 'British Swede' Andersson, and Sara 'Ebasta' Dominici.

A Man's Home Is Their Castle - Portfolio

2008-03-27T11:42:00.024+02:00

Million Dollar Squatters published on the online version of Condé Nast's Portfolio.

© Image Alex Masi

Over a period of five months a group of squatters occupied three different homes each worth millions of pounds in one of the most exclusive areas of London, Hampstead Garden Suburb, in the north west of the British capital.

Click here to read the full article and watch a slideshow of Alex Masi's pictures.

The Guardian Weekend

2007-12-29T20:17:00.001+02:00

One of the images I shot of the freeway bridge in Minneapolis, MN. that collapsed on August 1, 2007, killing six and injuring scores more.

Marketed by New York-based World Picture News, it was published by the Saturday supplement of The Guardian as part of their end-of-year review in pictures.

Other images of the event are available for syndication through WPN.

Million Dollar Squatters

2007-12-15T00:14:00.006+02:00

Here's the latest project born from yet another collaboration with photojournalist Alex Masi, a multimedia slideshow about squatting in London, UK.

Between June and November 2007, we followed a group of squatters with a penchant for mansions worth millions of pounds. In just over five months they occupied three different homes in one of the most exclusive areas of London, Hampstead Garden Suburb, in the north west of the capital.

During one of their incursions they found themselves sleeping in the lavishness previously enjoyed by former Indonesian president Haji Mohamed Suharto....watch the video to see how it worked out.

A complete reportage — text and photostory — is available to be syndicated. More info on alexmasi.co.uk

NEED magazine | Cooperation | Building Community

2007-11-16T20:35:00.003+02:00

Published on NEED Issue 4, out in the US in November 2007, this is the story that started my ongoing collaboration with the humanitarian magazine.

It focuses on the collaboration between two Minnesota-based nonprofits that sparked the rebuilding of Sri Lankan Communities annihilated by the Asian Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004.

Get the full story and all the images here.

Con Buddha nell'astuccio - D, La Repubblica delle donne

2007-09-29T16:41:00.002+02:00

Dharma is an ancient Indian spiritual concept that signifies the underlying order present in nature and life.

Dharma is also a private faith school that provides alternative education situated in the balmy seaside resort of Brighton, in the south east of England.

Inspired by, and informed with, principles of compassion and non-confrontation, its curriculum has encountered immediate success among progressive-thinking parents and their children since it opened to business in the late 1990s.

Mind you, not everybody here is a practicing Buddhist.

What has appealed to hundreds in the course of just a few years is the school's commitment to providing the kids with a high standard of well-being and creative stimuli.

More images can be found on alexmasi.co.uk

This story has so far been published only in Italian on D, the weekend supplement of leading daily newspaper La Repubblica.

An English version can be provided on request, and pictures and text are available to be syndicated separately.

Education, not proselytism;
Spirituality, not religion;
Acceptance, not confrontation.

Dharma school motto.

Bedouins of the Holy Land, TheMiddleEast - August 2006

2007-05-19T17:01:00.003+02:00

This article was my first major project to be published in the UK. Photographer Alex Masi and I spent more than a month and a half among Bedouin tribes in Israel in order to document their lifestyle, and the difficulties they endure daily as they try to integrate with the mainstream Israeli society.

Published on The Middle East magazine. More images can be found on Alex's website.

Pictures and text are also available to be syndicated separately.

A bit more on Bedouins of the Holy Land

2007-05-18T16:59:00.000+02:00

The following extract comes from an essay I wrote about Theory and Practice in the work of a journalist. It says a bit more about my experience with the Bedouins.

In November 2005, photojournalist Alex Masi and I travelled to the Middle East to follow a project on Israeli Bedouin tribes, thanks to contacts we had made with Bustan’l’Shalom, a NGO working in the region, staffed by both Jewish and Muslim activists. That trip and the following one in March 2006 resulted in my first major story to be published in the English press. (Bora, 2006)

From the very beginning, I understood that a traditional journalistic approach — a modus operandi that, ideally, wants to be completely detached from the subject of a story in order to preserve impartiality — was not going to work as well as theoretical models studied at school would have put it. The reality of the Bedouin society struck me more deeply than I had expected, and I could not help but proving sympathy for their plight. Israeli citizens in every aspect, they constitute a sizeable minority of Israel’s total population — about 180,000 in a nation of 6 million — but they often struggle to raise the international public attention, overshadowed by the more familiar Palestinian conflict.

Furthermore, they are at a crossroad of historical importance that is alienating older generations from younger ones, thus threatening the very foundations of their patriarchal, herding society. Modernity infiltrating their uneducated lives, and their supposed integration with the wider Israeli society, have so far had as their sole effect the creation of two groups that face different problems in very different situations. About half the Bedouin population has accepted the government’s relocation offers and has become urban proletariat, while the other half has staunchly refused to resettle and still lives scattered in the desert, without electricity, water or sewage systems, in villages that the authorities do not recognise.

A few days into my trip were enough to understand that it was a story that needed to be told. But this is how far my journalistic instinct and my theoretical preparation could take me, while more pressing questions regarding the validity of a standard approach multiplied as I went along. Was objectivity achievable? Did I need, as a foreign reporter, to be a witness only and leave aside my own opinions? Could the emotions, smells, and tastes I have experienced living among the tribes have a role in my reporting and foster a better understanding of their reality?

Reference: Bora, D. (2006) Bedouins of the Holy Land. The Middle East, August/September
2006, pp. 54-58.

Journalism Training supplement - Press Gazette UK

2007-04-15T21:28:00.001+02:00

For this very same supplement, I have also interviewed a number of editors and asked them what makes a good journalist. Interviewees included Roger Alton, editor of The Observer, Simon Grant, editor of Tate etc., and Kevin Bakhurst, head of BBC news 24.

Press Gazette UK - NUJ centennary special issue

2007-04-13T21:48:00.002+02:00

These are few of the interviews I made with young and old(er) members of the NUJ, which this year is celebrating its 100th birthday.

It was touching and fascinating to speak to individuals that have played such an important part — well, at least some of them — in the history of the union.

All extremely nice people these union workers, more often than not I would find myself just amicably chatting with them at the end of the interview.

Visit the NUJ web site for more info about their activities.

Global Report - Press Gazette UK

2007-03-23T16:50:00.001+02:00

Global Report - Press Gazette UK

2007-03-16T03:11:00.001+02:00

Press Gazette UK

2007-03-16T03:04:00.002+02:00

Student hub opens its doors with a fanfare - LCC News

2006-12-01T02:42:00.001+02:00

An archive of all the articles I wrote during my time at the LCC News can be found here.

Fosterer Tribute - Marylebone & Paddington Mercury

2006-06-30T00:41:00.001+02:00

Our fountains are drought of order - Kensington & Chelsea News

2006-06-22T21:06:00.002+02:00

Here's the main story I followed during my stint at the Kensington & Chelsea News. I was on it for a while, and the whole drought it was sort of a big thing in England at the time.

It was a great success, and I was extremely pleased to see it published on page 3, the best spot on a paper apart from the cover as many of you may know.

I feel it is safe to say that this was the article that made me understand journalism was for me.

And I was for journalism.