The wind is shaping a beautiful sea of snow on the landscape. There are waves as far as the eyes can see.

Despites the apparent rough weather conditions, there must be something beautiful; as I met a lot of people hiking and like me, grinning without knowing why.

We’re All Gonna Die

Simon’s famous We’re All Gonna Die 100m long portraits of 178 people, taken during 20 days from a railroad bridge in Berlin. It took Simon 17 months to sort out the 3000 pictures and come with this incredible image.

When I read the title, I immediately labelled it with the usual dark and fearful words. But Simon didn’t mean it that way; to him, the very fact that indeed we’re all going to die, is a powerful reminder to share the love and joy of living we’ve been provided. Actually, that message flows and shine from the 100m long picture.

The first time I look at the picture, I spent half an hour, just looking, speechless, thoughtless. I was midly aware of the discrepency between my previous fearful label and the power of message transcribed from the picture.

You can read an interview from Simon about this project here: Interview with Simon Hoegsberg.

His other projects

I’ve been drawned to Simon other projects. I completely forgot the images, as they seem to be the harbingers, not the mean in the end that “common” photography is, today.

One of his project, Faces of New York is about asking “random” people what they’re thinking about their face. I put the “random” in quotes, because Simon seems to be attracted to people who are also conveying a powerful message.

The woman pictured here, for example, thanks God for the face she’s been given and loves it.

You can label each face, think it is beautiful or not, in the end, these are just thoughts. Meaningless thoughts that create a meaningless world. God (or whatever name you’ll call It), did really create this meaningless world? Or is that our meaningless thoughts that create this meaningless world?

Looking at the faces Simon chose for his project was for me a powerful excercice to become aware of all the thoughts and labels I was projecting.

Travels

Another type of project from Simon, are to travel from one place to another with challenging means. For instance, he travelled from Copenhagen to Istanbul on bike.

Copenhagen/Istanbul also conveys a powerful message; if you’re aware and open, not matter what happens to you, help will comes.

Somehow, it’s more a journey into life than a geographical journey.

Free advices + coffee

Simon’s latest project Free advice + coffee seems to be leading more obviously to consciousness than photography.

During one week, 5 hours a day, Simon offered free advices and coffee. About 50 people stopped, all of them sharing existential problems.

What is beautiful in Simon’s work, is that he is discovering the world from experience and then know, opposed to “know about”, which is mind stuff. For example, he said that he noticed from experience that people don’t need advice, as they know the answer themselves. For many of us, it takes psychological studies, coach practices and quiet a bunch of theory just to realize this simple fact. It requires also a lot of humility and openess, to admit that we know nothing.

By letting a complete stranger enters their life, people allowed to opportunity to be truely listen to and maybe, from this shared awareness would come an answer.

I would like to thanks Simon for his work.

The elder one (on the picture), is slowly loosing her innoncence, thanks to school, but get caught anyway from time to time by the magic of Nature.

Taken on nightfall with a fisheye (I had planned to make panos, but the lady girl had other business on her mind).

The name of the picture, “the calling”, refers to the deep inner transformation that happened to me one year ago.
I woke up and now have my eyes fully open. The journey is now inward.
If you don’t understand what I’m talking about; don’t worry, you will at the right moment.

Love to all of you.

We went in four hours later..after having found a beautiful “jump” on a slope. We couldn’t get enough.

Switzerland is so crowded that unless you escape ontop of a summit, you can actually walk in the middle of the night without using a light torch.

I’m currently bored with photography..there are so many talented people out there, and looking at their works makes me so joyful that I fail to see the point of producing anything myself…maybe a 5d mark ii soon to be sold on ebay..;)

The author is Elena Filatova, a Russian woman who travels and documents the Chernobyl area since several years. She rides on her motorbike and thus can explore roads that cars cannot.

Chernobyl history

I was 12 years old when it happened. Here, in West Europa, little information did spread from Russia, which was still URSS and a very closed country, as most of the East was. Little did we know how serious the disaster was. Even now, we still don’t know how many died, unofficial sources claim 400′000 people, maybe more. We’ll never know. And more than twenty years after, it’s gone from our memories. Mostly.

Comment from Elena:

The day after the accident, this place on the bridge provided a good view of the gaping crack in the nuclear containment vessel that was ruptured by the explosion. Many curious people came here to have a look and were bathed in a flood of deadly x-rays emanating directly from the glowing nuclearcore.

Original here.

Here is what Wikipedia says about it, in case you really forgot or never heard about.

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear reactor accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union). It is considered to be the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history and the only level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale. It resulted in a severe release of radioactivity following a massive power excursion that destroyed the reactor. Most deaths from the accident were caused by radiation poisoning.

Source here.

Elena

I have no idea why the author is travelling through these dead countries. But a few things moved me, for reasons I cannot name.

Visit her website and digg (yeah, really digg) for informations and photos.

Comment from Elena:

It is really Plutonium that will reign here for thousands of years. It is extremely toxic and highly chemically reactive, half-life of Plutonium-239 is over 24,000 years. Plutonium is appropriately named after Pluto, god of the dead and ruler of the underworld.

Source here.

The quality of the photos is not the subject here, for most where taken more than 20 years ago and surely their authors had other concerns than quality in mind.

What moved me in Elena’s work is that she seems to be drawned to these places. She says, at several occasions, that during the day, the silence is deafening and that it’s like entering a painting, especially in ghosts villages. Nights seem more lively.

Comment from Elena:

Why trees so often grow on doorsteps?

Maybe it is their way of telling us that we have lost all privileges and are not welcome here any more.

Source here.

She noticed also a message from Nature; “we don’t need you”. I guess it’s what moved me. Human being is cut from nature and all other kind of lives. We are cut from ourselves. And until we don’t remember who we truely are, yes, Nature doesn’t need us.

The rainbow was taken below a snow canon (I’m not sure about the english term). I don’t know why they were working.