People say you should never meet your idols. I don’t have many because it’s quiet pointless to follow somebody so blindly but in my case I did so with the artist Ulay. I studied his work, his writings and his career in university.

On one miracle day whilst I was drinking in a hotel bar he happened to walk in with his other half. Quite lanky, scruffy grey Gandalf beard with a glittery female partner I quickly made a b line for him.

The Tate gallery in Liverpool had invited him over to be a part of a special exhibition and he was also giving a talk. He was actually staying in the hotel but I didn’t know this until later. Anyway I ask to buy him and his partner a drink and he was nice enough and seemed like a salt of the earth character. He told me about the Tate exhibition and as it so happened my newly opened gallery also had an exhibition that same night. We chatted and he asked for the directions of my gallery and as it wasn’t far from the Tate (15 min walk) he told me he would gladly come and see me at the show later on. I told everyone of course and all the people who attend my gallery that evening that I had met him during the day he was coming to the show. I was so excited for him to come and thought how amazing this is going to be for me and gallery.

The bastard never turned up.

Some lessons here 😂😂

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Something similar happened to me with Marina Abramovich, who strolled past me with her entourage at an Art Basel pre-opening party.

The construct of being someone's fan is a bit alien to me. Nevertheless, I have the greatest respect for her art, because it touches me and brings up a lot of personal topics. I was very curious-and in my head : what would we talk about, how would her handshake feel like.

So she walks up to me, smiling.. I thought- oh what an friendly, fear-free person.

Then she said in her tongue-drenched drawled English:

I know …you can take a good picture of us… and handed me her Camera. 20 long seconds passed with an intensive, typical Abramovichy eye to eye -she's very good at that.

I made a few shots.

She was right, they were good.

Marina praised me and left without touching the ground in her ethereal intangibility .

Thinking about it, at least since then I've never had any doubts about becoming a good photographer. Apparently one of the prerequisites for this is being in the right place at the right time.

Well, that’s something I'm quite good at:)

#Artstr

#luminostr

So digging this, #plebchain — I got to show Bernoit Mandelbrot how to use email.

Have embraced chaos and open node communication ever since.

This is one of the most interesting stories I’ve heard on Nostr. This is what life is all about. Those little parts we give up and tell each other from our own points of view. I’m sure Marinas telling would be different 😂.

The eye contact is the part i wanted to touch on. She won’t be on here so it’s ok to share. I met a photographer in a bar once and she used this technique on me. After a brief introduction she asked would I simply look into her eyes for one minute and pause, another minute and then one more after that in silence. After that we went for three minutes. Next thing I’m rolling about with her 🤝. Crazy.