I Will

I’ll kiss the moonlight falling on your breasts this night.
I’ll wander through your hair in search of lost whispers.
I’ll swim in your eyes to the far shores of fervent love.
I’ll smell your skin and distill that special scent of sunshine.

I’ll bargain with time to arrest your smile for a moment more.
I’ll write sonnets about the silken depths of your belly button.
I’ll travel across seven seas to capture the song of a skylark for you.
I’ll reason with god to transmute your laughter into wine.

I’ll bathe you in the light of dawn every morning.
I’ll force the four winds to dry the sweat on your tired brow at dusk.
I’ll play the lute to let the angel of sleep embrace you every night.
I’ll sweep the sky into my arms and drape you in blue.

And as you sleep in between my arms
I’ll lay awake and watch you smile in your dreams.

Night Skin

The night hung between us
like a forgotten conversation.

Her breasts under my hand.
Her lips against my thigh.
Neatly shaven and pleasantly rough.

She slipped her tongue into my mouth
like a newspaper sliding under the door.

The sheets rustled and
slid. Desire surfed along the
rising curve of our tongues.

The night traveled down
again behind our eye lids.

Held between her hands
I sighed. Under the sheets
fingers explored fertile valleys.

She pushed me under and fell
over me like a familiar song.

Moist and molten we kissed. Lips
exchanged names written by tongues.

She moved over me. I was caught in her song.
She rode the bridge and waited for the chorus.
I joined her as the music peaked and together
we felt the words come crashing down inside her.

The sweat stained night settled
into the folds of our skins as we
fell asleep inside and over each other.

The Rave

It happened at the rave. I was supposed to cover the event as an unofficial photographer. I jumped at the chance as I had never been to a rave before and hadn’t done much night photography. The rave was in an old castle on the banks of the Rhine beyond Bonn. You entered the grounds, went beyond the main walls to enter a small covered space that was enclosed by the castle walls on three sides and the outer boundary wall on one side. This gave the place the shape of an amphitheater. I saw my friend immediately. He smiled, waved and came over.

“Thanks a lot for coming. I’m very glad you could make it.”

“My pleasure. I hope I’m not too late?”

“No, not at all. We are about to start so you came at the right time. Do you need any help setting up?”

“Thank you but no. I can manage. So what is it exactly that I need to do?”

“Oh, nothing very special or particular. Just take as many photos of as many people as you can. And don’t worry, people won’t mind. If you have a problem just call me. Ok, I gotta rush now, so many things that need to be arranged, you know how it is, so have fun shooting and I’ll see you around the place.”

With that he rushed off.

It didn’t seem to be a big party. There were in fact very few people for a rave. About 100 people I’d say. There seemed to be an equal number of women and men. I was the only non-white there. From the start I felt a little out of place. I don’t like being surrounded by white people. They give me the creeps for some reason especially when I don’t understand the language spoken by them. But I was doing this for a good friend so I suppressed my uneasiness and set up my camera equipment. The light was low and since I do not like using flash I had to use fast glass.

That’s when the music hit me like a bomb blast. The sound was almost on the threshold of pain. It was like a wall of throbbing sound twisting my insides and hitting my heart with the force of a gale wind. It felt as if something was churning my insides and I was being turned inside out. I staggered and became numb for a minute as I adjusted. I did not recognize the music but it sure did slice through bone marrow and make you want to dance. It was a pity I had to concentrate on the job at hand. I was ready to dance the night away!

The music seemed to have been the signal. The lights dimmed and people started gyrating. It was fascinating to watch them. There were perfectly in step to the music. It was as if they were choreographed, which was a bit weird as I had been under the impression that a rave was all about letting go and freaking out. But their movements had a strange beauty to them, a subtle sensual quality that under the dim lighting made the dancing seem mildly erotic. I watched this for a while before I remembered the reason I was there.

I switched on the camera, cranked up the ISO and plunged into the crowd, with great hesitation I must add. I normally do not like photographing strangers as I’m too shy to approach them and being a foreigner doesn’t always help things. But my friend’s words had been reassuring and I guess the dim lighting also helped my confidence. More than anything though, the whole spectacle was too damn interesting to be not captured!

Where Do I Go From Here?

Where Do I Go From Here?

April 2007, Stuttgart.

Fuji Neopan 400

If yesterday’s shot was taken by Minolta’s excellent compact rangefinder, the HiMatic 7sII, today’s shot was taken by Canon’s similar full-featured rangefinder, the Canonet QL17 GIII (I often wonder who comes up with such imaginative camera names!). The Canonet is bigger and heavier than the Minolta but sports a much brighter and clearer viewfinder than the latter and even offers automatic parallex correction, something found only on more expensive rangefinders! It’s 40mm lens is as fast as the one on the Minolta (f/1.7) but according to the many user reports I’ve read online it falls short on contrast and sharpness when compared to the one on the latter. Read more about the Canonet here. All in all I’m very happy with my two rangefinders as they are great fun to use and will keep me going until I can afford a Leica 🙂