…. at the end africa always reveals itself, with its small/big absurdities ….
in this particular instance, at the very nice hotel were i am staying, they have made a small/big mistake : they have swaped the cold/hot taps.
so hot water (boiling!) from the tap on the right and cold water from the tap on the left.
it wouldn’t be such a big mistake, but the first day i almost burn myself while brushing my teeth.
once i learnt the bizarre situation it wasn’t obviously anything tragic.
all this became comic the first time i went, i beg your pardon, to shit: i relieve myself, pull the water and, what a surprise, i see a cloud of smoke coming up from the toilet: that is also boiling water

life as a fashion photographer can incurr in serious dangers: one is happily on his way to a day of shooting, the sun is shining, everybody is relaxed and serene, and suddenly trgady is around the corner, better say around the turn: the highly poisonous and frightening “10 steps” (so called because if it bites you only have ten steps left to live) crosses the road….
all is fine.
i’m alive!

landed in cape town
sunny and hot.
lost the virgin atlantic flight for technical problems.
caught a south african airlines flight.
lost the luggage.
no change.
totally stunned.
alive.
more or less survived.
“look at this hand mr Benedusi, how many fingers?”
i would say three.
“ouch ouch ouch , mr Benedusi, they are five. Why don’t you take a nice nap?”

well: i arrived last night from usa, i went to my office, worked until late, even if my time zone was telling me it was five am.
then I went home to sleep, even if my time zone was telling me to wake up.
after a while i went to the office and then to linate, even if my time zone was telling me it was the middle of the night and I should have gone to bed.
it is now eight pm, i’m in london in the south african airways lounge, and I’m the only one stunned.
i’m in waiting list because the plane I was suppose to take had “technical problems”.
i’m checking on the net if fashion photography is considered a highly stressing job….

even the job in los angeles has been completed.
i’m in the air france lounge, waiting for my flight to paris and then to Milan
all went almost well.
one thing I want to talk about, and i take it from far:
for a short period of time i was teaching at the european institute of design,
sometimes for longer periods, sometimes only for quick spots to beginners or end of course students.
it was somehow pleasant, but i had to reduce if not cancel, my availability, because of continuous work commintments, preventing me from being present all the time for one reason or the other.
what i want to tell is that for a certain period during the first lesson i was doing something that could seem a big show off, arrogant, haughty and specially out of contest: i was starting the lesson more or less like this: “hi guys, i’m here to teach you how it is possible to become fashion photographers and manage to make it a real profession. before i start to tell you about cameras, magazines, advertising campaign, tests, models, make-up artists, editors, …and so on i would like you to acknowledge one fundamental item that is paramount if you want to became a professional fashion photographer”
at this stage the audience would look at me puzzled, because in the meantime i would open my jacket and take out my wallet
i would open my wallet and take out my american express .
i would showel it in the air saying: “guys, this is the only irreplaceable item , obviously beside your talent and good ideas, to be a fashion photographer.
you can rent cameras, flash lights, films, computers …. you can find anything wherever you are going to shoot, but the real fundamental item is a good well loaded credit card”.
Everybody would lokk at me amazed, some with pity for my excessive arrogance, some with a good dose of disbelieve.
also because my credit card was and is a gold american express.
they saw me, like you see me now while reading these lines, like the hunk photographer that wants to be even hunkier with a hunk scene.
instead it was not a scene, I was and I am absolutely convince of what I was talking about.
to come to the point: if during these days while working in los angeles I didn’t have a valid credit card (all right, a gold American express …) it would have been impossible to complete the job.
i do not say difficult.
i donot say complicated.
i say absolutely impossible,
i would have come back to milan with no photos at all.
not a light matter, isn’t it?
so: do you want to be a fashion photographer?
get a good credit card first.