Saturday was another crazy Paris Photo day with intensive networking. Meeting people and discussing possible future collaboration. In Baudoin Lebon's Gallery was a viewing of Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski's work arranged for friend and collector Aline L-G. Followed by a Tibetan tea in the nearby Starbuck's Café. Aline has recently discovered her interest in spirituality and received from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski books with lectures of Krishnamurti and Osho. For a person unfamiliar with these texts they come as a shock. Therefore, over Tibetan tea and a chocolate chip cookie it was explained that the texts were not dogma's. That they only serve to provoke and inspire because everything we spiritually need to know is already inside us. It only needs to be woken up. Osho is very good for this when a person discover's that Osho's controversies are his or her own confusions. But Aline had some very good things to say as well to calm down Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski's ongoing unrest because of the situation in India.
There was also a meeting later that day with the founder and owner of the "Nature et DĂ©couverte"-chain of shops, Francois Lemarchand. He told the story of a man in France who was very uggly. But one day he met a woman who told him he was very beautiful. She repeated this to the man many times until he came to believe it. And once he believed he was beautiful, he didn't look uggly anymore. Of course Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski knows from his project "The most beautiful people in the world", see www.themostbeautifulpeople.org , that this is how it works. It is what you believe it is. In the 80's Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski has been doing a project on this issue. He found in the Netherlands two girls of the same age: 21. The difference was that one girl believed she was beautiful and the other one believed she was uggly. He followed with his camera each girl for some weeks and published the results next to eachother. One of the conclusions was that each person can make life beautiful or not beautiful. For example, the girl believing not to be beautiful would go and eat alone in a miserable McDonald's restaurant eating a hamburger and drinking a cola making her fat, unhappy and full of acne. The other girl would save money and then go with her pretty boyfriend to a decent restaurant and eat healthy food by candlelight.
At about 20.00 hours Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski met Angelica Cuevas Portilla. A beautiful Mexican woman with who he has been working on his project "The most beautiful people in the world" in Barcelona, Spain and in France. They are very close friends. The plan was to go for dinner and this together with Helena Prado, a Mexican film-editor and camerawoman. Leaving Paris Photo, Angelica Cuevas Portilla and Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski, standing on a long escalator, suddenly noticed that in front of them was Karl Lagerfeld and his toasttanned boyfriend. "Be careful not to fall now in the ass of Karl Lagerfeld", Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski warned loudly Angelica Cuevas Portilla and they could see Karl Lagerfeld's head turn slightly towards them.
Near Place Monge in Paris is Angelica Cuevas Portilla and Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski's favorite Japanese restaurant and they had a quiet table in a corner. Angelica and Helena have about the same age as the Princess in India and they were able to explain more in detail how they operate in life. This is very different from the way it used to be. Nowadays, young, clever, brilliant and ambitious young people have an agenda and a list of priorities. This is essential and the most important and any other activity in life is secondary. In fact this is also how Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski organises his life. Most important is his growing process and the expression of the results through photography and everything else is secondary. Angelica and Helena therefore made clear that expectations towards a brilliant and beautiful and ambitious woman should not reach the sky but not go higher than a low ceiling.
This made sense to Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and he was overwhelmed by a sudden feeling of having seen the light and being back in a better balance between Paris and New Delhi. He was in fact so enthousiastic suddenly that he didn't notice that with his chopsticks it was not a piece of raw fish he was picking up, but the large ball of wasabe. The hot green pepper paste to be used very moderately. Once wasabe arrived in his mouth, he realised what had happened and he quickly tried to mastermind how to get out of this awful situation. Spit it out on his plate in front of these gorgeous Mexican ladies ? Run to the bathroom and vomit it out into the bowl ?
But he managed, experienced Japanese food consumer as he is, to hold his concentration, take his glass of water and wash it into his stomach. A funny burning feeling descending brought tears to his eyes and Angelica and Helena unjustifiably believed that once more the distance to India had made him break down.
The conversation in the restaurant went on till far after midnight. Angelica went back to her appartment while Helena and Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski went to look for a taxi. It was about 2 o'clock at night, cold and raining. The taxi stand at Place Monge had two abandoned taxi's and 20 people waiting. When it was the turn of Helena and Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski a young man ran quickly to the taxi to try to get in and steal it away. Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski, who is a good runner and doesn't appreciate these kinds of jokes, ran also to the taxi and told the driver that the young man was not exactly the next one in line. An argument developed with the young man but backed by the taxi driver Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski told him to fuck off and to be a man in these matters. Paris could see Helena looking in appreciation how she was saved by a brave man but didn't invite him to come dancing with her in the discotheque she was going to. That privilege was already given away to some Austrian motherfucker and Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski went home alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment