Love Parade, Vienna 2013

Sometimes, I am just cursing my luck - I would go out, camera in hand with the great anticipation to take a picture, and another one, and another one, and another one - that fervent thrill of clicking the shutter and knowing that you've captured a moment in someone's like - a moment in one's own life - a moment. And then luck strikes out - streets are empty, streets are lifeless, streets are abandoned - because you've forgotten to check the event calendar of the city, or because the weather has decided to turn sour, or because you have simply decided to go to the wrong city. 

And then, there are those times when luck not simply smiles but shows you its multi-coloured rainbow teeth - when you have a camera, when you are in the right set of mind, and when the streets are full - because there is a parade. I happened upon such a parade in Vienna - a love parade - where even the police officers had abandoned their typical gloomy black uniforms for a touch of colour on the lapels or a flower in the hair; where the austerity of the elegance was replaced by the frivolous nature of the topless divas; where the children had decided that they will give up trying to understand the whole discussion between the left and the right and they simply joined the side of "love and happiness" ("what is inequality, daddy?"). 

Study: “Water”

The other day I read an article by Steve Huff on his website about Inspiration. And I thought about inspiration and how it comes to a photographer. Perhaps everyone has a different approach but for me a photograph is not always planned. When I go jogging and take my camera, I do not necessarily know how many pictures (if any at all) I will come back with – I just take the camera “just in case”. So, I decided to have myself a bit of a different approach. I posted on my facebook and twitter account the request for my friends/followers to give me a challenge. The outcome was in itself inspirational: topics as abstract as “dreams” or “everyday magic” to more concrete things like “water” and “the color green”. I decided to NOT make a decision as to which one I pursue but rather keep them all present and see what comes along.

There were two pictures that I took today that to my mind fit the challenge. Today N1 – “Water”. White water is argued to be the future petroleum in terms of scarcity and price, it is already a vital resource around the world. It’s scarcity in Africa and parts of Asia nowadays are, if nothing else, a scary prediction of what it may look like in the rest of the world in a couple of decades. (If you have not yet seen the movie HOME, watch it on YouTube and share it further.)

So, when I went to the city center today for my usual Saturday morning Starbucks coffee, I had my camera and walked about. I spotted this tourist asking a passer-by if this water was drinkable. When they said it was, she took her bottle out and filled it with water from this fountain. To me this was an immediate association with the scarcity of water – we have started drinking water from fountains (yes, perhaps it was built specifically with such a purpose in mind – but then again, how many people know that this fountain-looking … thing is actually providing drinkable tab water?).