Monte Carlo is a steady witness of visitors who come here to fulfill a dream, be it to play some chips at the Casino’, make a round speeding up on the F1 track ( yes, I can hear you making noise at night !) or simply to walk the same pavements of many rich and famous while celebrating some personal event – often a long planned cruise of the Mediterranean opening the retirement, or even a honeymoon.

Scenes like this one are particularly tender, seen through the eyes of a middle-aged person. Are these kids going to do well? Will they find balance in their relationship, satisfaction from their careers? Will bad spells spare them along the way? For now they are busy looking up and making plans. I wish them luck.

“The Good Life” – Joey De Francesco

Sempre caro mi fu quest’ermo colle
E questa siepe che da tanta parte
De’ll ultimo orrizonte il guarde esclude.

(Always dear to me was this lonely hill,
And this hedge, which from so much part
Of the ultimate horizon the view excludes.)

Ma sedendo e mirando interminati
Spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani
Silenzi, e profondissima quiete,
Io nel pensier mi fingo, ove per poco
Il cor non si spaura.

(But sitting and gazing, boundless
Spaces beyond that, and more than human
Silences and profoundest quiet
I in thoughts pretend to myself, where almost
The heart is overwhelmed.)

E come il vento
Odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello
Infinito silenzio a questa voce
Vo comparando; e mi sovvien l’eterno,
E le morte stagioni, e la presente
E viva, e’l suon di lei.

(And as the wind
I hear rustle through these plants, I such
Infinite silence to this voice
Go on comparing: and come to mind the eternal
And the dead seasons, and the present
And the living, and the sound of it. )

Così tra questa
Immensità s’annega il pensier mio:
E’l naufragar m’è dolce in questo mare.

(So through this
Immensity is drowned my thoughts:
And being shipwrecked is sweet to me in this sea.)

Giacomo Leopardi, 1819.

“Alfonsina Y el Mar” – Diego El Cigala

I love the way in which our imagination works. A simple combination of a calm and sunny seashore with a human invention like this, and your mind wanders immediately to exotic  holiday destinations , and most likely a smile will appear on your face. Almost all is true in this subtle message, except that I made this photograph while having lunch at one of the beach restaurants in Nice in February.

Thinking about Surrealism, one might think that it has been invented by the likes of Salvador Dali, but I think surrealism is as old as our world.  We organize the mental images according to some order,  naturally look for patterns that are familiar, and oddly paired circumstances tend to amuse us by default,

“Fried Bananas” – Dexter Gordon

“These Foolish Things” – Stephane Grappelli & Michel Petrucciani

 “Cry Baby” – Janis Joplin

If you live in a place constantly filled with tourists, a shoot-the-shooter attitude tends to develop naturally. Sometimes this takes an interesting bend, like in this case, where the shooter might merit to become a model, sometimes it is the other way around.

What always draws my attention, are the shooters with big zoom lenses, who “wear” on top of them a lens shade twisted upside down (= useless).

I find particularly amusing these “pro” looking photographers, who can’t help chimping continuously at the back of their cameras, as if the last snapshot was a candidate for the World Press Photo of the year…

Frankly, I do not remember the last time I had my photo taken – perhaps it was my wife that was testing her smartphone. It sort of does not enter my mind, why people enjoy generating these “proofs of presence”. It gets even worse with the selfies, apparently it can even become a mental disorder.

What makes me appreciate these photographs, is the occasional possibility of fixing in a single image an interplay of contemporaneous behaviours. It sort of recalls the novels with multiple heroes and plots, that finally interweave in a climatic event which unites them all in the same time and place.

The selfies I enjoy most, are like the illustration of the theory of parallel universes. You tend to lose the perception which one is the one you live in.

“Interplay” – Bill Evans

I like this simple shot of my wife observing a distant sailboat race on one of the rare rainy days that happen in Nice in early spring. It seems a simple excuse in a study of shape and geometry. When you begin observing closely many of the iconic photographs of our time, you are likely to find some geometric order beyond an interesting subject or event. Henri Cartier Bresson, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn have been the most notable masters of form.

“The Ballad of the Shape of Things” – Kingston Trio

“Albatross” – Fleetwood Mac

The inevitable moment of beginning to post photos without a commentary has arrived. This will become one of the series, like the SINGLE SHOTS, or other occasional themes. It should also permit me to post more often. BTW, there are many photographs, that don’t really need any additional explanation.

“Rocks in My Bed” – Red Garland

I’ve taken this shot on one of occasional escapades to Cannes. It reminds me about the way in which Riviera became fashionable, when the industrial revolution started inflating the wealth of the British good society in the 19th century, and passing the winter months  here has become a ritual. At the time, the ideal of beauty was to be pale, so the correct way of enjoying your day close to sea was with your back turned to the sun, just like shown above.

The trend changed only in the twenties of last century, after Coco Chanel has made sun tan fashionable. The official story says, she got accidentally sun burnt in 1923 while on a holiday on the Riviera, and decided to make it a trend when back in Paris. There is a more malign version, ascribing her sudden interest in tanned skin to an affair, that she supposedly had at a time with a beautiful mulatte.

Whatever it has been, I find it was high time to turn around and face the sun and the sea. Contemplating the seascapes while the sun and a light breeze caress your face is one of the greatest pleasures of Riviera life, and the cheapest to boot.

“Seascape” – Bill Evans