Daniel Vinklar , March 17, 2003; 08:25 A.M.
Immagini forti - Emotione instantanea
Why I haven't brought any pictures from Italy
So I have to write. One of us all has to write, if this is going to get told. Better that it be me who am dead, for I'm less compromised than the rest; I who see only the clouds...
(Julio Cortázar - Blow-Up)
8/3/2003. It was my very first morning in Florence, Italy. I had got up very
early, so eager to be out already. I had packed my camera bag and by 8 o'clock
I was already in the streets. It was a beautiful spring morning. Here, the spring
was already in its full bloom, grass fresh and green, flowers opening their
petals. The air smelled of Spring and life. It was still early morning and I
found the street of Florence almost empty, except for random little groups of
Japanese tourists, mostly girls, who's clock probably was set so, that they
didn't need to sleep either, here and there. It was a paradise. I spent the
whole morning exploring the city and taking pictures. I was shooting slides
on Sensia, really enjoying it, with no stress, playing with composition, trying
different angles, changing lens, thinking of the exposure, depth of focus, carefully
underexposing by 1/3. It was a pure joy. Apart taking the obligatory pictures,
so that also my girlfriend would see, (my Letter to Jane) like Ponte
Vecchio or Il Duomo, typically me, I would be looking for pictures of shades,
exploring the very narrow streets and trying to catch the feel by photographing
the details of rust on the old bicycles, the curves of the door handles, breaking
my neck while flinging back for the structures and patterns of the walls and
archways and spans, then catching the ladies' faces and photographing their
legs, than again, trying to get more material to my never-ending project I would
be taking pictures of the figurines and doll-babies in the shop-windows, along
with snaps and details of lingerie, as well as with details of the curves photographed
from billboards and posters. I worked fairly the whole morning and enjoyed it.
Then, as I needed some rest and, having thought, that after taking some lunch
I would go to the park to bath in the sun and make notes, I went to the crossroad
in front of the railway station. On the green lawn, I sat down on the ground
and felt terribly happy in the Spring-Saturday morning.
It was just few moments later; I realized I had seen a sandwich shop across
the crossroad, so I crossed over this passing of the ways. With my backpack
on my back, my camera bag with everything in it (camera, battery pack, lenses,
sun shades, stock of film, but also my money, passport, and a PDA) on my shoulder
and my sandwich in my hand I left the shop and as I was out on the narrow pavement
of Via de Panzani, I suddenly realized how streets were full of people. I started
walking back towards Piazza Unita Italiana, having realized that the group of
men blocking the whole pavement in front of me suddenly stopped, I stepped of
the pavement into the street and tried to pass them. Here they were. A man suddenly
patted me on my left shoulder (he followed me into the street!) and started
speaking to me in Italian, needed to say, I speak no Italian at all. I thought
- a beggar. I tried to walk away, suddenly realizing another man was patting
on my right shoulder, speaking in Italian and pointing to my back. Still not
knowing what was going on, I tried to get rid of them. All of sudden I was surrounded
by a group of men, I understood now they were suggesting I had some dirt on
my back and I think they were telling me to look up and pay attention to the
birds. I didn't feel comfortable at all. I pushed my way to the corner of the
piazza, the men all around me. Only now I do realize I have felt something like
careful touches on me during that way. Here on the corner of the piazza, I put
my camera bag of my shoulder and put it on the ground between my legs and I
was holding it firmly with my legs so that it would be safe. I put off my back
pack and founded it covered with some sort of unpleasant looking dirt, than
I realized I had it on the back of my jacket, as well on my trousers. I felt
very stupid and now believing it was birds I started trying to clean my backpack
with the water from the bottle I had in my backpack. One of the men who were
watching me approached nearer and offered his handkerchief for cleaning. I didn't
care. Then, those were the two last seconds that I needed to understand at last.
Unfortunately enough, it was too late by now. The group of men surrounded me
even closer, in fact they were now pushing on me and squeezing me between their
bodies. They were tall enough and numerous enough and they were dark skinned
with black hair, no matter how decently they were dressed. I was scared as hell.
Then, as I was squeezed between them and horrified to death, someone violently
wrenched and took my camera bag from behind from between my legs, and I was
not at all able to hold it firm and safe any longer. The other men still on
me, were doing insolent and threatening gestures, I felt miserable, scared and
exactly what I was - unable of doing anything. After a few seconds, they left
me, some ran, others walked away. I was in deep shock, perhaps still unable
to believe that what had happened was real. Here I stood, robbed, dirty as a
pig, wanting to cry, the most miserable person in the world.
Here at the Piazza of Unita Italiana, these bitches united to rob me and make
my life miserable. This happened around lunchtime, mid-day, thousands of other
people round. I thought only thing I could do was to lie down and cry. There
was no one to help me. By the way there was not a single policeman hundreds
of meters around, but I am in no mood to tell you other disillusioning stories
of having had experience with Italian police afterwards.
Summary: I was robbed openly, being threatened, in a white mid-day, in public,
of the following:
- camera CANON EOS 33, serial number 62004317
- battery pack CANON BP-300
- lens CANON EF 100/2,8 USM Macro, serial number 6500745C, plus lens hood
- lens SIGMA AF 24-70/2,8 EXP ASP DG DF F/CANON, serial number 1008245, plus lens hood
as well as
- camera bag LOWEPRO NOVA 4, gray and black, textile and leather
- film Fuji Sensia 100, 6 pc, 2 of them already shot
- film Kodak T-MAX 100, 6 pc
- film Kodak T-MAX 400, 3 pc
- UV protection packs HAMA for 6 pc of film, 2 pc
- PASSPORT, in my name
- PDA Compaq Ipaq
- money (500 EUR)
- :-)
I am neither very stupid nor naive, but miracles can happen, This is then an
appeal to photographers in Italy, based in or around Florence, Tuscany, I do
not know whether these things travel. Just if you by coincidence should happen
to come across a possibility of purchasing the equipment as stated above, perhaps,
suspiciously cheap, well then, if this miracle would happen, I certainly would
offer a reward. Of course, I have a police report and purchase documents. If
someone would find the films in the two packages (which I can imagine were of
no value to those thieves and were thrown away), one was signed COLOUR and the
other B&W with a blue felt-tip pen, I would give a huge reward for the 2
shot rolls of Sensia.
I realize this is not probable to happen, so, perhaps this was to let my mind
finally relief...
... and I should probably get now to sorting my mind and perhaps resolving
it in an essay "what makes man a photographer", with underlying theme
whether there is something like a photographer with no cameras... .... ....
this is for my frustration...
best regards,
daniel.vinklar@ct.cz,
Praha, 15/3/2003
additional thoughts:
I have already settled down a little, and I am no longer sending a Mr.Bush-please-bomb-Italy-first kind of a letter, and I am probably not going to condemn Italy either, the Tuscany country-side was so beautiful! In addition, the very kind and very helpful lady at the consulate of the Czech Republic (best regards to Aranka) told me, that those were more probably Albanians or Armenians, she said that gangs of those are operating in and around Florence...
Well, extrenely expensive lesson learnt, I have always been so cautious, I just never imagined someone would in fact threaten me and make me disgorge my things openly...
if I ever get to have such eqipment again:
- I will not move with all of it around a big city alone
- I will have only one camera with just one lens around my neck (actually it will be difficult to chooses the non existing lens for all needs)
- I will have adhesive labels on everything messages on everything saying this belongs to... and contact
- I will never ever get insured with Ceska Pojistovna again, by all means stay away from those bastards, I had a travel insurance for personal things and belongings, and they say they will pay me nothing as this was an exceptional case and they do not care...
- I will not play smart again and try do distribute things trying to minimalize possibility of damage, in fact, what I had done was that I took most of my money and didn't have in my wallet as not to be stolen, and I hid it in the camera bag... :-(
...enough of that! uf...