Tag: history

Daily Coffee Talk~ 89/365

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.

Tags art, bicycle, cloud, germany, halde haniel, happiness, help, hill, history, inspiration, life, photography, sky, street, Ukraine, war

CHINA contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 67/365

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.

Tags 365, baggage, bags, birds, blog, china, ethnic, future, germany, history, life, lightness, moman, weight, work, yunnan

india inspiration Photography street photography

Morning Coffee Talk~15/365

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date December 15, 2021
10 Comments on Morning Coffee Talk~15/365

A woman in Varanasi, India with handprints around the door frame of her home.

Good Morning,

As part of my daily morning process, I have always started with observing the root number of the day. You arrive at this number by adding all the numbers of the day, month and year till you arrive at a single number between 1 and 9. Today is 15+12+2021=5.

5 days have to do with, yes, you guessed it, the nature of 5. If you start to observe the nature of days between 1 and 9, you gradually see a pattern. The best way to start this investigation is by researching the number itself, where have you seen in in nature, religion, culture, mathematical anomalies…etc.

5 is a prime number, we see it in many flower petals, in the number of fingers and toes, in our extremities (we look like stars), in starfish, the 5th Fibonacci number, 5 senses, the five elements in hinduism: earth, air, water, fire and space or ether, the 5 faces of Shiva, the 5 pillars of Islam, the 5 woundings of Christ, the 5 books of Judaism… and the list goes on.

The reason why my mind went more into 5 and numerology today is because of the image above. You see handprints in the world since the beginning of time, from cave paintings till today’s modern art. There is a huge discussion about these ancient hand prints to determine if they are art or not, as if that matters. But what is the real significance of creating a handprint? Where have we seen it before? I just love finding clues in history about things like this.

And what would the nature of a 5 day like today be? Balance comes to mind… What else? What is the root number of your birth date? What does it suggest? Mine is 5.

Tags 365, blog, blogger, daily blog, detection, five, history, morning process, nature, nature of the day, numerology, photography, project, religion, research

Germany Photography

Xanten~ a Photographic Visit

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date September 19, 2020
6 Comments on Xanten~ a Photographic Visit

A place that still echoes with the steps of a history gone by, but still is.

Tags amphitheater, black and white, cathedral, future, germany, history, life, mimo khair, old, past, photography, present, roman, town, xanten

faces inspiration Photography portrait street photography

Remembering to forget~

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How often do we catch ourselves lingering on past events with a melancholic obsession? We task ourselves with carrying the baggage of emotional hurt like an armor that only keeps us from moving forward. The way forward is lighter, freer and leaves no room for old heavy anchors.

Day 61 of 365~

Image taken in Siena, Italy of a beautiful soul who humored my experimentations with long exposure and ghosting. July 2012

Tags andrea keyrouz, faces, future, ghosting, history, italy, long exposure, night, river, siena, travel

Photography shanghai street photography Uncategorized

Back in Time~ Shanghai

today-i-saw-yesterday-shanghai once-upon-a-time-in-shanghai_

Shanghai never fails to surprise you. As a photographer living in this city, you can never be at a loss for impressions. Even time travel is possible if you are willing to go out of your way to visit the film park in Songjiang. Every time I went there I was able to capture a fantastically surreal film set where time stops and life is reenacted to show a sense of times gone by. And where else in the world can you just walk up to the set and photograph it?

I love Shanghai <3

Tags 1930s, actors, asia, china, cinema, film, history, love, old, photography, shanghai, songjiang, street, studio, time

CHINA Photography Yunnan

The Ethnic Minority Culture of Yunnan~ China

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date March 22, 2015
12 Comments on The Ethnic Minority Culture of Yunnan~ China

I returned with a small group of photographers last week to this remote region of China’s Yunnan Province that haunted me since my last visit to the area a couple of years back.

It is the type of journey you would do if you were really in love with photography and different cultures that make up pieces of the puzzle of the human story on our planet.

The journey was a great challenge from the long drives, to the heat, the spare accommodations and the great element of unknown.

It was the opening of my series of documentary photography workshops that I am doing in Yunnan and despite all the challenges we faced, I can happily call this a great success.

I will be sharing here a series of images, stories, portraits and special stories about this journey into a unique and mysterious part of the world.

Tags cheyi, china, documentary, ethnic minority, hani, history, honghe, human, human condition, journey, my yunnan adventure, myyunnanadventures, people, photography, workshop, yunnan

inspiration New York Photography street Travel

Day 22~ November 22nd~ New York

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date November 26, 2012
17 Comments on Day 22~ November 22nd~ New York

Manna-hata, the original name of Manhattan from the Lenape language, translates to the land of many hills, but I also heard it referred to as the island of drunkenness. Perhaps all that has happened on that small island if put together and condensed to one single film, it would be the strangest movie ever made. Magnetic city, it will always be that to me.

Tags bokeh, brooklyn, city, fence, flying, glasses, glow, gold, hair, history, language, lenape, light, manhattan, manna-hata, mimo khair, new york, photography, silhouette, sunset, usa, water, woman

architecture art history Tuscany

Day 20~ September 20th~ Tuscany

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date September 27, 2012
9 Comments on Day 20~ September 20th~ Tuscany

Another one of the architectural marvels of Tuscany, the so called “zebra cathedral” with its black and white marble is just a stunning structure from both the inside and out. You could spend hours trying to decipher the codes of a place like this, the numerology and symbolism of it are begging investigation. The mystery in history…

Tags black, cathedral, church, columns, duomo, history, mystery, numerology, siena, stripes, symbolism, white, zebra

art history inspiration Photography Tuscany

Day 12~ September 12th~ Tuscany

Post author By ~mimo~
Post date September 14, 2012
6 Comments on Day 12~ September 12th~ Tuscany

So much of the charm of old Europe comes from its layers upon layers of history and the value they place on preserving tradition. Walking into the exquisitely charming rooms of this beautiful pharmacy in Florence, my heart skipped a beat. Knowing that it was first built by the Dominican friars of the 16th century and that it served since then the very same purpose while retaining its beauty and authenticity is just heart warming. It spoke to me of value for the old and a great appreciation of beauty and of good taste, things that are otherwise being quickly lost to commercial materialism in the rest of the world.
It was recommended by a friend (thank you Paola), and likewise I recommend it back to you: if you are in Florence, try not to miss it!