by Anna Cox | Jun 23, 2014 | Anna Cox, Stories
In today’s society a storyteller’s function has many faces. In the past it was the storyteller’s important duty to pass on knowledge to help his or her people survive. They passed on their history, traditions, beliefs and identity. In modern times a storyteller is so much more. They still tell stories of our history, traditions and beliefs but they also provide entertainment and educate us
Today with the coming of the digital age each person is able to tell their individual stories sharing them with a wide audience. We want to help others with our knowledge, amuse them and share our experiences.
Stories entertain us, help us understand each other and give us a sense of belonging. We share our experiences with others and read about others experiences to make sense of our
lives, showing us we are not alone. Stories can give us a sense of hope, help us connect with one another. They can show us that happy endings are still possible.
In the past stories were passed on orally and later with books. In the modern age the passing on of stories continues thru books, magazines, newspapers, online and orally. For even now a person who can tell a great story is much beloved. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and in today’s digital age another way to tell stories is thru pictures. With the advent of the mobile phone/camera everyone can be a storyteller. A mother telling the story of her family thru pictures. Someone telling the story of an important event because they had their mobile camera with them. Stories of love, pain, beauty and joy.
Storyteller’s are still very much alive and well and needed. With so much human turmoil, so many people connected in the digital age a storyteller can show you the harsh realities of life whether real or imagined
or the possibilities for the future.
by Anna Cox | Jun 2, 2014 | Anna Cox, Stories
As storytellers, our hearts take on many forms through our work. Our dear friend, Alessio, started a book called “Life of Chloe” but sadly passed before he could finish his work. As friends and peers, we have taken on the task of finishing his work in the only way we know how- together. We are a collective, friends, artists, lovers, mothers, and fathers and as such we all bring our own experiences to the table every time we tell a story. Alessio loved the mobile community and sought to bring us together to form stronger bonds. The Life of Chloe was a labor of love for Ale and it only seemed fitting to continue his story with ours as his light was snuffed out way too early.
In this article you will find the original chapters that Ale wrote and we are using these as a stepping stone and prologue to the collaborative book Grryo is writing to honor Alessio and his passing.
We do hope you will continue on this journey that Ale started and see the world through Chloe’s eyes.
——————————
The Life of Chloe
Chloe loved a married man…
no plans, no holidays, no random calls just to say Hi, I feel so bad today…
everything had to be pre arranged. All the times.
The calls, the meetings in faraway places, the hidden love.
No room for spontaneity and sharing.
A lot of Past, some Present but no Future…
Chloe amava un uomo sposato…
nessun programma, nessuna vacanza insieme, nessuna chiamata improvvisa solo per dirsi Ciao, Mi sento giù oggi…
Tutto doveva essere preorganizzato. Sempre.
Le chiamate, gli incontri clandestini in posti lontani, l’amore nascosto.
Nessuno spazio per la spontaneità e la condivisione.
Tanto passato, un poco di presente, ma niente futuro…
The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to Burn”…
Chloe thought of her Mum when this sayin got to her Head, she was the one who first suffered from wrong choices in her Life.
“Hey, it’s almost Christmas” Chloe thought
“i HAVE to call her”…
“La cosa più difficile nella vita è decidere quale ponte attraversare e quale distruggere…”
Chloe ripensò a sua mamma quando questa frase le tornò alla mente, proprio lei era stata la prima a soffrire per decisioni sbagliate nella sua vita.
“Hey, è quasi Natale!” Chloe pensò
“devo chiamarla subito…”
“Am i really ready to give up on this?”…Chloe wondered…
“Let’s face the truth, Chloe! He will never accept the idea of starting new again. Not with me”
In that very moment, a chilly breeze blew her hat away.
And she felt devasted as never before…
“sono veramente pronta a rinunciare a tutto questo?”…si chiedeva Chloe…
“affrontiamo la verità, Chloe! Lui non accetterà mai davvero l’idea di ricominciare tutto daccapo di nuovo. Non con me”
In quel preciso momento, una ventata di aria gelida fece volare il suo cappello.
E si sentì devastata come mai le era accaduto…
…Many years passed since that winter day.
Chloe took what was left of her life, and never turned back.
Sometimes, early in the morning, she finds herself staring at the safe eyes of the mountains outside her bedroom window.
Not a noise. No regrets.
Chloe feels warm inside
and holds in her arms the son of that far away man.
And thanks God once more…
…Molti anni trascorsero da quel giorno d’inverno.
Chloe prese quel poco che le era rimasto della sua vita, e non si voltò indietro.
A volte, presto al mattino, si ritrova a fissare quegli occhi sicuri e protettivi, di quelle montagne aldifuori dalla finestra della sua camera da letto.
Nessun rumore. Nessun rimpianto.
Chloe avverte un piacevole calore dal di dentro
e stringe tra le sue braccia il figlio di quell’uomo ormai lontano.
E ringrazia Dio ancora e ancora…
Hello World.
I was born today.
After you tried to kill me all those times before, i can still walk under the rain.
Hello Rain and Thunderstorms. Wash my skin today, because i have no fear to stay here naked under your eyes.
Hello Blacks and hello Whites. Both sides of me are now one, and no one will take the colors away from me again.
Hello Sea. Where would I be without you near?
Hello Death. You tried to win over me, maybe you put baby in the corner, but you missed your chance to beat me down.
Hello Life, i’ve been to my funeral and i watched them all. You taught me where my limits end, and how to rise again. Like a Phoenix.
Hello you.
My name is Chloe. And I was born today, Tuesday 7 august 2012…
August 14, 2012
“start a new day, but not alone…” The radio was playin that song and it was too early in the morning.
When was the last time i woke up with someone who really cared about me?
When was the last time i woke up with someone at all?
When did i open up the window to see the first sun rays of a new day?
When were you here with me the last time?
It feels like forever.
This scar on my ankle is pulsin blood straight to my heart now. It lives there to remind me how evil can transform you, how it spreads fast inside you, like a virus in need of fresh human skin. That scar is your scar, your legacy, your tied knot. It is not hurtin today, must be the sun and my inner peace to let you finally off of my body.
The weather forecast is always wrong with me, they never seem to understand the heavy responsibility of their predictions on my life.
I am addicted to weather. I can smell the rain before you even run for shelter, i can listen to snow falling for hours without uttering a sound, i can see through the fog.
But not today. I will soak up the sun today…
“There is Life, even after a Broken Heart…” (“Broken Heart”, written/performed by White Lion, 1991)
Monday, August 20, 2012
“have you heard from Chloe?”
“No and i miss her. I really thought i would find her yesterday night, at our long awaited reunion dinner… did you speak to her on the phone? Texted her?”
“Tried to call her in the weekend. Phone rang unanswered. All the time…”
One month was just passed in those familiar and close surroundings.
ALL the one lifetime friends did come and say the words. The paths of the childhood were all bypassed with a smile on their lips and a sense of belongin in a dreamy tale.
The elder, the newborns, the classic players and actors in that small Town theatre Set, all of them somehow updated to these new, confused and crisis-full times.
But one thing was still and strong out of the picture.
Time
Nobody seemed to understand how complex and precious that was.
And kept wasting it.
Like a free unlimited bonus earned in some lottery.
And she could not take this anymore.
So she wrote her usual two words to say Goodbye to the friends of her past and decided to take the long walk across the beachline.
The family was in silence, busy in moving and caring of the child. No loss of anything. Focused on their task, at that very moment.
“Thank you!!!” – CHLOE said from the distance.
“You gave me that TIME”…
So Mike called Today
(…more than a feelin…)
So Mike called today. i was lost in the guitar riff singing loud at the entrance of the graveyard. There is nothing more than a rock riff to show my presence in the land of the whispering ones
“Chloe? Chloe?…Hey Amore ci sei? Is this the right number… Are you okay, its…how much… maybe more than…Listen, i know…”
Only in that moment I realized it was him.
Michele.
The voice from the past. The Only One Man who ever made her lunatic head go bump and bump against the Walls.
“Mikey what you want. Why You callin’ me now? Call your Wife. We closed this long ago.”
“YOU closed this”
YES. I waited. I Looked. I Burned. I Closed.
“Call Her. Call Alice. I know she is waiting for this call now.I can Feel it. Call Her Michele.”
Oh, look! There is a Man fading away today. He looks NOT in peace. I have to go and See him.
Wait!
“Ciao Mikey, that man needs my Help”
Chloe moved to sing her song of strength to that Man in Agony! She realized he was a young Father, as soon as he saw a little man playin with a flower just next to him.
She asked him “What is your Name?”, but remained astonished from the answer she got.
They shared an earphone. The guitar riffs were gone.
Chloe got closer and sang to his ear “Sweet Child Of Mine” and the pain went away.
No frills.
An old man.
A long gone small tower down Italian history.
Senza fronzoli. Un uomo anziano Una torre antica in un antico villaggio italiano.
A Sunday spent “with the top rolled down”.
With a friend.
The one friends that count the most. More than relatives.
The cloudy lights and warmth and wind. The serenity of someone who blocks your heavy thoughts.
Who caresses the anxiety?
The meaning of bonding.
In the small and big things of LIFE.
Alfre entered in Chloe’s LIFE from the back door but it really looked like he was with her to stay…
Luci grigie e nuvolose di un cielo e del vento. La serenità di chi blocca i pensieri più pesanti e l’ansia. Il significato di un legame nelle piccole e grandi cose della vita.
Alfre entrava nella vita di CHLOE dalla porta di servizio. Ma tutto faceva pensare ci sarebbe rimasto a lungo…
by Anna Cox | May 16, 2014 | Anna Cox, Featured Articles
Find My Heart in India by Anna C.
*[REWIND] Originally posted on We Are Juxt on August 15, 2012
Anna’s Introduction
I love stumbling across beautiful feeds and more importantly I love India. I traveled there with my father many moons ago and fell in love instantly. When I was tagged to Jessica’s, @jessuckapow, feed I was blown away by the humanity that stared back at me from their neat little boxes. I could almost smell the markets and hear the vendors. Looking through her feed and reading her blog brought back so many happy memories. I do hope you will take the time to soak in the sites and sounds that are Jessica’s life.
Oh! P.S. she is an Andriod photographer! Wahoo!
A: Anna J: Jessica
A: Tell me a story about India. The one that you always want to tell when people ask you about India.
J: I was in Goa and during “the season,” as everyone calls the time between November and March, it’s flooded with tourists so during this time a contingent of what the locals call “gypsys” come to town to do their seasonal begging. Some are rather aged, some are children, many are younger women who have infants and small children with them. A lot of people consider them a nuisance and treat them like crap, which is difficult to see. I was sitting at my favorite falafel place and had just finished filling one of the gypsy’s bottles with fresh milk for the infant dangling at her side as a feeble looking woman with the harsh years etched into her face approached wanting money for food. The restaurant owner, Shimon, offered her chai and a sandwich and with much appreciation she squatted under a tree to wait. I smiled at her and she shyly smiled back at me with a toothless grin and we watched Shimon’s young daughter, Gia, play around the outdoor patio. All of a sudden, his daughter slipped on a chair and tumbled towards the ground. This woman, who looked like she couldn’t run from a bull if it charged down the street, bolts from her squatted position and dives to catch Gia, managing to save her from a massive thud. She brushed off her knees as Gia wailed in shock as Shimon came out to help and the woman gently passed Gia to him. He placed his daughter into the safety of the cushions on the floor and went back to preparing the food for the woman. Witnessing the display of compassion from two beautiful people, who belong to different rungs of Indian society, which is very rare to see here, was incredibly touching and epitomized the goodness in humanity. The black and white portrait I sent you, is the woman who helped Gia that day.
A: Tell me about your life right now. I know your traveling. Where have you been were are you going? Why?
J: I don’t know if I would consider what I do “traveling,” because I REALLY don’t like the whole traveling part of traveling and I usually find a place I like, stay for a few months and suck up all I can from where I choose to live. I’m more of a gypsy, you can say. Since December 2010, I’ve volunteered on a bridge construction project in Lesotho, Africa, visited a number of friends in Europe and Australia, meditated and bummed around Thailand, and a few visits home to Seattle to see friends, family and tie up loose ends but a majority of my time has been studying yoga and meditation in India and I plan to stay here for rest of the year.
My first trip to Lesotho, which was only for a few weeks, in 2008, initiated a dramatic change in me. I looked around at my well paying corporate consulting job, which I was great at but hated, my recently purchased home, my car, ALL the crap I owned and thought, “what am I doing?!” For the first time, as an aware adult, I saw people living a simple life, they had just the bare necessities and they were HAPPY and I…was not. I received the biggest present after returning from a volunteer trip to Peru in early 2010 – my company was eliminating my job! They offered me the option to either take the “promotion” or take severance and after a few moments of being completely bummed out, I smiled, accepted the separation package and never looked back. I had a few little trips planned with my new freedom but there is a familiar story with most long-term travelers and it always seems to start the same way, HEARTBREAK! All of a sudden, my planned 6-week trip to Africa turned into 3 months and now, I was planning a trip to India to throw myself into studying everything there was about yoga.
Heartbreak starts so many journeys but it doesn’t sustain long term travel. Once you leave the comforts of everything you know, for more than a few week vacation, you taste what else this world has to offer. You see just how small and insignificant we are as individuals and realize, globally, everyone just wants to be happy. When you’re thrown into new challenges, new obstacles, new surroundings, unknown languages, customs and people, you also realize just how big of a foreign world you have inside yourself. I thought I was leaving home to understand the full depth of yoga, what I’ve recently come to realize is that I actually left home to understand the full depth of ME. India has a suction cup attached to me, the more I’m here the more I’m learning WHY I’m actually here and when I’m not here, my plans have always been about getting back here. It’s the kind of country that will guide you everywhere you need to go, as long as you keep your eyes and heart open for all the opportunities that present themselves. It’s such a weird and beautiful place!
A: Wow! it must be hard to be so far away. How are you using mobile photography/ social sites to connect with the people you love?
J: I don’t know how I would be able to do what I do without Facebook, Blogspot, Skype and Instagram. I’m ridiculously close to my family and friends and being away from them is so difficult but I know I’m doing what I need to for me right now. The way I view my photography is sharing my eyes with those I love and sharing experiences I wish they could have with me, in that moment. Some of those in my world may never find it in themselves, for whatever reason, to make the changes they really want to make in their life. Some want to join me but I know “life happens.” I know how hard it is to break from a very comfortable routine, to be terrified of making that first step and risk leaving the security you think you’ve built for yourself, all for what… the unknown, the moment? I’ve had so many friends thank me for allowing them to live vicariously through me but when I’m sitting on a cliff in the Himalayas, watching the thick fog dissipate to reveal the most majestic view I’ve ever witnessed, being able to snap a photo, edit it to capture the beauty and mood my eyes see and upload it to Instagram, which I’ve made my photo journal, makes me feel like they are with me. They thank me but really, I should be thanking them. The support and love they have all showered upon me has been a huge driving force and I don’t think I could ever thank them enough. Sharing myself, my experiences, my stories and my lessons through my writing and my photography is the best way I know how to show them my gratitude. I’m here for me with the full awareness that all I do for myself is only what I would love to share with everyone else.
A: India is a beautiful place. How does your life influence your photography ?
J: My entire life, up until 2010 had been so calculated, meticulously planned and organized. When I decided to make a change, I threw all that away and the personal transitions I’ve experienced through yoga have shifted me to enjoy the present, not brood in the past or day dream about an unknown future. I’m no longer looking for the top of the ladder, I’m just enjoying my present stair and with each photo I take I want to capture the essence of what I’m experiencing, right then! I toyed with the idea of having consistency to the feel of the photos I take but when I tried that, it just didn’t work. The only consistency there is in my life is that there is no consistency, which is true in all our lives. I want my photos to epitomize that reality and to be as true to what either I’m feeling or the environment is feeling. Visiting foreign lands, specifically 3rd world and developing countries, ignited my passion for photography because I saw so much unique beauty in the faces, architecture and landscape, a beauty that wasn’t necessarily produced meticulously or manufactured specifically to be beautiful. Often times I’m in places where most in the Western would view them as destitute, disgusting or ugly but finding the beauty among all the filth, the rubble, garbage, dirt, grime and poverty is where I find the magic in life.
A: One last question. Is it all worth it? Leaving everything behind, striking out on your own, and finding a new place you can call home?
J: Nothing in the world would make me want things to happen any differently than they did. I studied for a very short time with this bizarre-o tantra yoga teacher and while he said a lot of crazy stuff like, I should drink my own menstrual blood (ummm EWWWW!), he did say something that struck me. “Before you meet a girl, be happy. Meet a girl and be happy. If the girl goes away, still be happy.” I was so happy before I met this woman, was just as happy when we met and became good friends, was just as happy, ok, maybe a lot more, when we started dating but after it didn’t work I was a complete mess. Something was wrong with that picture and I knew it. Everything changes, everything goes away, relationships change, people leave or they die, jobs come and go, houses are built and destroyed, cars go vroom and then go kaput (or BOOM as was the case with mine) but through it all, the ups and the downs, the highs and the lows, we should still be… happy. This whole journey isn’t necessarily embracing my independence from others or from things because I still learn so much about myself through the relationships, of varying degrees, I have with everything, from people to my towel. I am just learning to be completely happy with the relationship I have with myself and that’s more important than any relationship I’ll ever have with anyone or anything else. I’ve never felt so grounded and for the first time in my life, I can’t attribute my happiness to anything in particular and it feels amazing! So, I think it’s worth it…if I didn’t, I’d probably be doing something else.
Thank you Jessica for sharing your heart and your home with me. I am so excited to be able to travel with you through your words and photos.
To read Jessica’s travel blog go here.
To see Jessica’s photos go here.
by Anna Cox | Apr 25, 2014 | Reviews
The all-star Pixite LLC photo app suite gets an impressive boost this week with the launch of Union, a pioneering photo enhancement app
designed for intuitive, high-level image stacking, editing and masking. A natural extension of Pixite’s established photo editing apps, Fragment and Tangent, Union lets users quickly and easily replace backgrounds and combine photos in unique and creative ways. Union’s design appeals to professional photographers and hobbyists alike, featuring a clean, intuitive interface and the latest technologies in mobile graphic design. “It’s a brand new take on the entire masking procedure hanging the way you’ll think about layering, blending, and combining photos,” said one of Union’s creators, Ben Guerrette. “But it’s also easily understandable, ushering you through the steps without having to be super explicit.” Union artists can create superimposed, silhouetted, and double-exposure edits from their iPhones or iPads by combining images for surreal and sometimes radically creative compositions, while retaining uncompromising professional quality results. To begin, Union users load a background image, color fill, or transparent layer. Then, users load a foreground image or color fill that can be composited onto the background image. During either or both processes, users can make adjustments for brightness, contrast, color temperature, and saturation levels with a precision-focused slider.
In the final step, users add a mask layer that dictates the parts of the foreground to be erased to create the final blended image. Since the mask layer is non-destructive and separate from the foreground image, users don’t have to worry about permanently erasing or losing any parts of the foreground. Additionally, users can swap out the foreground and retain the mask that they have been working on. Editing supports both broad and minute adjustments for foreground image position and size, creating tight, smooth blending for an organic finish.
Highly precise tools erase unwanted image sections for seamless background and foreground integration. One of Union’s tools that has been optimized for mobile editing, the Magic Wand, is unique among those offered by other apps by allowing real-time adjustments, which drastically reduces time-consuming back-and-forth editing. Using Union’s Magic Wand, photo artists can complete both larger-scale sections and minute erasures with simple tap-delete functionality. For up-close detailed work, the brush tool’s solid, gradient, and square brush options coupled with zoom-adjustable brush size give the users unmatched flexibility and precision. Used together with the Highlight tool, which clearly shows the masked areas using a semitransparent red overlay, Union allows users to achieve pixel-perfect blending. On top of its exceptional masking tools, Union brings a whole new level to blending by including shape and image loading for masks. Instead of starting from a blank mask layer, users can select from various geometric shapes or convert any photo in the Camera Roll into a high contrast black and white image to be used as a mask, offering opportunities for silhouetted compositions that weren’t previously possible. Finished Union images can be saved in full-resolution format, exported, and shared on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or via email. Union can be used on its own or in tandem with other apps in the Pixite suite, including Tangent and Fragment. Both have already created big footprints in the iPhonography community–Tangent was named one of App Store Best of 2013 and Fragment topped the Photo & Video category charts–earning a loyal following while pushing the limits of mobile artistry. To function more symbiotically with Union, both Pixite apps received fresh updates— making room for Tangent 1.6 and Fragment 1.3. Overall, it’s a powerful vote for Union’s clean, uncluttered interface that gets out of the way so that users can focus on editing artistry and creative vision. Among Union’s enhancement options:
• Combining background and foreground images, then isolating a desired section
• Advanced real-time masking with specialized, high-precision erasure
• Both shape and image based masking with image adjustment, scaling and blending
tools
• Easily produced superimposed, silhouetted, and double-exposure effects for radically
surreal, spacious compositions
It’s super easy for the hobbyist, but it has the deep tools a professional expects,” Guerrette said. “It covers both spectrums. There are both commercial and recreational possibilities.” Union’s design features were created based on direct feedback from photo aficionados. Much of what we do is inspired by the community of artists on Instagram,” Guerrette said. We’re constantly pulling inspiration from them. We look closely at what they do in order to create tools to ma
by Anna Cox | Apr 22, 2014 | You Are Juxt
MOBILE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS PRESENTS: SHADOW STORIES: the art of Mobile black & white
The Mobile Photography Awards is pleased to announce an open call for entries for photographers and artists worldwide to submit Black & White photographs and images created on mobile devices (phone and tablet) for Shadow Stories: The Art of Mobile Black & White. The exhibit will have a digital premiere at the SOHO Arthouse in New York in May, 2014 and a print exhibit follows for a three week run at the Holcim Gallery near Toronto from June 9-28, 2014. If you already have an MPA account please sign-in or register and enter with a new account right here
The exhibit will feature between 25-30 images, as chosen by our jury, and will accompany the 3rd Annual MPA winners presentation at the Holcim Gallery.
We welcome all genres and styles of black and white mobile photography: from straight photography to the more painterly and illustrative. We want to feature the finest black and white (and duotone) images made on mobile devices.
Entry Deadline and Fees
The call for submissions is open for just under three weeks – from April 3rd through April 24th, 2014. Images accepted into the exhibit will be announced the week of May 10th, 2014. Submission fees are in US Currency and are $15 for 1 image, $30 for 3 images, $50 for 6 images and $100 for 15. You may purchase as many blocks of entries as you like. Further information on the entry process and terms of entry are available on our FAQ.
About Soho Arthouse
Named as one of the best contemporary art galleries in NYC, SOHO ARTHOUSE is a multi-purpose event space, art gallery and theater. Centrally located in an iconic NYC neighborhood, the gallery is the “heartchild” of John Ordover, son of the late lawyer Jerry Ordover, a leading figure in the Modern Art community. Jerry’s clients over the years included artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Richard Serra, Nam Jun Paik and preeminent gallery owner Leo Castelli. “Growing up around the brilliant, spontaneous and off-beat crowd my father introduced me to,” Ordover said, “that creative energy drove my work as a writer and editor; opening a gallery is simply coming full circle.”
About the Holcim Gallery
A beautiful gallery space with clean lines and multiple viewing angles, the Holcim Gallery is inspired by the surrounding natural wonder of the Niagara Escarpment. Housed in the remarkable new Milton Centre for the Arts building near Toronto, the gallery draws crowds from the theatre, workshops and regional library as part of the arts complex. It has become a must visit space for arts patrons from the greater Toronto area. The MPA is thrilled to have been invited back following the success of our 2013 exhibits.
