.Achieved in the valley of dolls

This is the second version of the third, minor, exercise we had after the one with the picture we would take with us in a prison cell, had we been imprisoned, and the one we had to pair the same image with 5 different texts.

It is safe to state that this one was tantalising in the making, even if it shouldn't be. It was my fault. Throughout this second year in University it feels as if I am making easy things difficult. How and when I aquired this queer tendency to masochism, is something that escapes my mind though. In the first edit of it, I had included 3 portraits that all three worked perfectly in my opinion (in a attept to stay positive within my melancholia?), even if the guidelines of the exersise were sharply accurate. Bring:

• A successful portrait I have taken
• A successful portrait taken by someone else
• A portrait I consider unsucessful (that either I or someone else has taken)

Therefore, it felt suitable to re-edit it in parts. The only image which survived this revision is the one with John and Yoko taken by Annie Leibovitz on the 8th of December, 1980. That same evening when Lennon, on his way home from the recording studio, was shot and killed by a deranged fan. This photo was set out to become the cover of Rolling Stone's commemorative issue and John Lennon's last photograph ever."We were feeling comfortable because it was Annie whom we respected and trusted", says Ono for the picture. This is the one reason for choosing this image (the other one is that it exeplifies the state-of-the-art ways in Leibovitz's practice): in my mind, therefore in my own work, a good picture occurs not only of the mathematics behind the shooting (what camera you use, what kind of flash, et al.), but mostly of your relation with the subject. It is not about how you take a picture, but what you actually put in it. And this image occured mostly from the qualities arised from the intimacy formed by the relationship of Leibovitz with John & Yoko.

Talking about intimacy, this is the reason I have chosen the first image as well. It is a portrait of my niece taken while she was playing at my house's garden. I used to babysit her whenever I was in Greece and no matter how many pictures I ever take of her, she always begs for one more! Out of the hundred portraits I have taken of her, this might not be my favourite one, but it still suprises me due to her stunning assurance, especially for a then 3-year-old child.

And that is exactly what repels me in the following image: the lack of assurance.

Instead, it is a Kingdom of boredom, which justifies all the cliches of photographs taken for promotional reasons. Oasis in this portait, taken by Nick Wilson, are a bunch of guys that their ages added together come close to 200 years. Yet, they can't reach the craftiness of a little girl.