Tag: germany

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Photography street photography

SOLO~ The Art of Being Alone

week 2 of presale for the book has started!
Book Cover

Hi everyone,

I have been gone from here a while and daily blog project paused because of many changes happening all at once in my world as they often do in people’s worlds. As I am mostly a very private person, I will remain vague about these upheavals.

At the start of this month, a magical project turned up when I was approached by a book publisher here in Duesseldorf with the option of creating my first photography book based on the recent work I have been sharing. Naturally I was thrilled as I do love photography books and I was not sure where to start with producing mine.

To keep a long story inside a single paragraph: I met the team, they are amazing, the title appeared, I received a huge amount of support from my friends, family, fellow artist and fans, and here we are in week 2 of the pre-sale of the book, which is already a go!

The pre-sale copies will be signed and will include a small surprise with them as thanks to those amazing people who are allowing the book to exist. It will be a 168 page hard cover book printed on beautiful quality paper and containing 160 images from this theme.

Thank you Snap Collective Publishing for this adventure and thank you all for supporting my work.

Copies can be ordered Here!

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contemplations Germany inspiration Photography street photography war

Daily Coffee Talk~ 89/365

This cloud shall pass~ Germany

Hi again from Germany. It has taken me a while to force myself to come back to this blog since current events threw me completely off balance lately. But if there is anything I am sure of, it is that I am the boss of me and there is plenty of coffee left in the world to drink while I write my blog.

I chose this image today because it has felt lately as though a cloud is over us, casting a shadow on what we love to do and how we love to be, but all clouds dissolve and all storms will pass as they have always throughout history. We live on a planet of duality after all and there is always an up that follows a down.

I still remember spending hours trying to ‘melt’ clouds with my sister in Lebanon by firing force at them with our extended hands, and you can believe me or not, it works! Try it next time you feel like having some sunshine in your life.

The best way to get over a hurdle is to help break it down, and with the sad situation in the Ukraine and other wars, well, help, find a way to support the people who are helping by donating, creating, communicating, being compassionate and all of that somehow feels like a breeze that pushed the clouds out of the way.

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children children's rights contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 87/365

Today I saw a lot of children and young people enjoying the sun on a cold crisp day here in Germany and it made me think of this new generation.

They have to deal with so much and to inherit a broken world lacking in hope and riddled with corruption and warp.

The world today is so different to the one I had as a child. And yes, I did grow up inside of a civil war, but today feels somehow more volatile than that.

Things seem to be changing so fast and my hope is that change can happen in both directions. I know that sanity will return and morality still exists and good take up center stage at some point. It must…

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contemplations Germany human rights inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography war

Daily Coffee Talk~ 85/365

The world around us is always changing, every second could bring a new outcome, could cause a new future to onset. What are we in control of? Only our choices, in the now.

Europe feels so turbulent at this time and that unsettlement, I feel echoed in me. I feel the shockwaves of the despair and fear inside of those facing the unfortunate aggression going on in the Ukraine, and the human in me has a very hard time separating from the pain of other humans at this time.

So I keep pressing on with art, with trying to stay creative and feeling the immense value of having a space where peace can still exist. Every new day feels like a new opportunity and the only way I can help is by remembering human purpose in defiance of those who oppress and who take away from the innocent.

Let’s pray again and again for peace so that life and art can have a chance in shaping our future.

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children contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography story

Daily Coffee Talk~ 81/365

Do you ever have flying dreams?

I had them so often as a child and every once in a while as I got older. The feeling was so intense during my childhood that I completely believed that I could fly. I used to close my eyes and kick off with my feet and just hang there in midair doing swimming like motions to float up towards the ceiling.

This felt so intensely real that I know on some level, at some stage of our lives and in a certain state of reality, we can.

It always felt like a secret I had to keep but then the older I got the more stories I heard of others having experienced this.

A bit more from the mystery box of life…

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contemplations Germany inspiration LEBANON morning coffee talk old age old people parenting Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 79/365

Our fireplace today in Germany~

As long as I remember, when I still lived in Lebanon, my father would sit by the fireplace at our home at the foot of the mountain and on cold days continuously feed wood to the hungry fire and watch its raging flames and listen to its crackling sounds as it vanished into ashes.

It always made me think that there is a romantic in there hiding behind his seemingly hard exterior that he presented to the world.

The last 3 days, and in the middle of a storm here in Germany, our heating system broke down, so as we shuffle to get it fixed, I started using the fireplace as a means of generating warmth on these very cold days.

And guess what? I find myself as hypnotized by it as my father was and still is at over 85 years of age.

Life sometimes turns full circle on us…

Photo of my dad staring at his chimney 2 weeks ago in Lebanon taken by my sister.
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Germany morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 78/365

Rhein Promenade~ Duesseldorf

As Europe starts to gradually ease covid restrictions, I keep hearing talk of going back to our old normal, as if that is even possible!

Having lived through this pandemic and all the changes that we have witnessed, how can we use the words ‘going back’?

From here on, we can only move forward and discover a new normal, certainly not the same one we had.

Will they erase all these isolation circles that we got so used to standing inside of ? What about the way we wash our hands for 20 seconds? And the masks? Would the masks stay as they did in Asia after the SARS epidemic?

Let’s see what the future holds and how ‘normal’ is to be redefined.

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contemplations Germany morning coffee talk Photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 73/365

Hi again from Germany.

The sun is finally shining bright the and the days are starting to stretch and yawn loudly with the music of birds around here.

Where do the birds hide in winter time? You still see some of them here and there but as spring comes closer they start to sing their little hearts out in joy.

After another pandemic winter confinement, you can almost feel the urge in everyone to run outdoors and sing their song.

Hoping for a peaceful spring time of creativity and that the war that is threatening to happen in Europe fizzles down to sane talks instead. Because honestly, we need a break!

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Uncategorized

Daily Coffee Talk~70/365

Zeitfeld~ Duesseldorf

It’s time to write my blog before the time runs out.

At some point during human history someone felt the need to start recording time. It was no longer enough to just exist and react to the elements in nature, but some kind of adherence to the changes in the earth’s trajectory and rotation needed to be acknowledged and recorded on a daily basis .

And so here we are thousands of years later, with gps clocks and a total accuracy in the marking of time that has come so far from the first attempt of recording time at the sites of the earliest ancient cave paintings.

And what does it take to relax about the rest passage of time without the panic that drives most to ridiculous acts of misconception?

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CHINA contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 67/365

Tribal Ethnic Woman~ Yunnan, China

Today this image of the ethnic woman that I took in China triggered in me thoughts of lightness and weight. As I live and get older I feel the weight of my history and all that has happened in it.

I picture my life events as packages and bags that we have had to carry and as time goes on they can slow us down and keep us from moving forward and especially upward.

How do we let go of the weight and find the lightness we enjoyed as children?

Interestingly, most of my dreams that I diagnose as stress induced include suitcases, travel and items that are missing from them and time pressing on the whole situation and turning the level of stress to unbearable till I wake up.

Do we only let go of the weight when we pass on? Or can we start the shedding now, as we live, and be lighter and brighter?

I wish you a light and effervescent day ahead.