Tag: mask

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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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Germany lockdown morning coffee talk parenting Photography

Morning Coffee Talk~ 47/365

Good Morning,

I suppose it was inevitable and at some point Covid would come knocking on our door. There is a positive test in our home today so we will be in quarantine for the next 7 days at least.

Luckily we live at a time when we can remain connected with loved ones, friends and colleagues online and much homework will get done.

Hoping to surf through this without too many health issues. Stay healthy, get vaccinated and be well.

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contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk street street photography

Morning Coffee Talk~ 19/365

Good Morning,

If you celebrate Christmas, you must be counting down at this point to the event next Friday. Here in Germany, some of the cities like Duesseldorf are lucky to have their Christmas markets still open despite the rising Covid-19 numbers, but with restrictions.

At this point the change and strangeness of the pandemic can no longer be denied or ignored by anyone. Masked faces are becoming the new normal and we are learning to read faces from the expressions in the eyes. A city of masked super heroes who keep on going towards the holidays armed with hope, the will to live, the love of joy and being with family and friends.

The resilience of humans feels like an encoded gift in our genetic makeup. We somehow seem to adapt and keep finding the beauty in life despite the circumstances. History is filled with examples of this and it just makes me smile.

Enjoy the countdown and let’s see what this new year is bringing.

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art contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk Photography

Morning Coffee Talk~ 3/265

The early days of Covid-19

Good morning from my desk somewhere in Germany on a cold winter day. It is dark still before 6 am with our very short daylight hours at this time of year. Candles are lit, Christmas lights are on outside and that makes the world around me brighter and cosier.

I created this photo with my daughter in the image at the start of the pandemic when we all was still new, unknown, and in our minds a very temporary state of affairs. Here we are now almost 2 years later, looking at a 4th wave in Germany and watching the world grapple with this virus.

Familiarity is a strange thing, isn’t it? We used to perceive masks as a strange thing as we lived in China, where they were a common sight, but then as we lived there almost 12 years, they became part of the normals. Then in 2019, to wear and see masks around us in the European streets felt extremely strange, until that again became the normal, but is it?

Will we look back at this time of our lives and see it for the strange and impactful part of human history that it really is?

Hoping you are healthy, safe and happy wherever you are…

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New York Photography street photography workshop

Dreaming of a better tomorrow~

We can sometimes as humans feel the weight of the world as events unfold around us, shudder at the uncertainty, fear the onset of darker days on this planet, but despite it all, hope lives. Even when just a tiny spark of well-being pushes us on to defy the darkness with light, the dream of a better tomorrow never dies.

Day 30 of 365

Image taken on the Brooklyn Bridge, New York

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CHINA human rights old age old people shanghai

adapting to a changing world

adapting to a changing world~ Shanghai

In today’s world, pollution is discussed in terms like high or low, toxic or just unhealthy, almost accepting it as a part of everyday life and forgetting to ask the basic question: why do we have to live with it?

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CHINA human rights Photography shanghai

a future we never bargained for~ Shanghai

pollution~ Shanghai-2 pollution~ Shanghai-3 pollution~ Shanghai-4 pollution~ Shanghai-5 pollution~ Shanghai-6 pollution~ Shanghai-7During the last few days, Shanghai was submerged in a large cloud of gray pollution that seemed to call over terms like ‘apocalypse’ and ‘end of days’ from many of its residents. A look of worry shrouded everyone’s face and all conversations centered around the same theme: the toxic smog. It felt so bizarre to walk around in a dark city with masked people and alarmed eyes everywhere you looked. The pollution was literally off the scales (over 500) and no comforting answers anywhere as to when and if it will end. Now, a few days later, it has dropped to 195, still an alarming number in any country, but here in Shanghai, it calls for a celebration. What kind of world are we bringing our children into? What levels of abuse are we subjecting our planet to in the name of progress, money and power?

 

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art CHINA inspiration life Photography shanghai street

All that remains unsaid

as we zip through our busy lives
as we zip through our busy lives

You always hear stories of people on their deathbeds wishing they had said this or that to a loved one, wished they had expressed an emotion to someone that they know they should have, and wished that they would be allowed a second chance to say what they wanted to say but had no chance to. We design our lives in a way that creates valid excuses for our silence. We trade comfort and avoidance for confrontations and human expression. Where is the freedom in that?

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CHINA contemplations Photography shanghai street

Gateways to the soul

Gateways to the soul
Gateways to the soul

So much power can travel from and between human eyes, intensity, excitement, alarm, fear, inspiration, hesitation, suggestion, avoidance, guilt, pride, strength, wisdom, glow, inner beauty, and so many other emotions and radiations, too many to list here. Gateways to the soul? Portals of higher communication? However we see them, once the mouth is masked as it often is in Asia, I find that the eyes intensify as it does in other places around the world where only the eyes are shown.

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Egypt history Photography story

Day 8~ March 8th~ Egypt

the burial mask of Tutankhamun~ Cairo museum

 

The journey to Egypt was more a journey of feelings, sensing and of connection than that of collecting brain information. There were places and things in Egypt that let me ‘feel’ so much more than others. One of these beacons was the tomb of Tutankhamun.

The son of Akhenaten, king at age 9, reformer of religion from god Aten to god Amun, youngest Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, the young boy king was to die at age 18. There has been so much written and said about this enigmatic king and so much of it fails to meet logic.

One thing that was for me undeniable standing in the tomb where Tutankhamun’s mummy was found, despite it being a much simpler tomb than that of other kings, a soft and gentle cloud wrapped itself around the place and a great quiet, a stillness that I feel even now as I write this. The mummy was housed in 7 levels of gold and wood and it was discovered in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter.

the alabaster canopic jars of Tutankhamun
the burial mask of the boy king