I named it the Atlas Pavilion because it has a beautiful view of the snowy Atlas Mountains at 6 months a year. But I think the interiors are memorable, too. I decorated the main salon with it's 22+ foot pyramid dome roof and catwalk with lots of color, using carpets, cushions and poufs with liberal abandon. I carried each of the lanterns back from Egypt.
Oh...the thought of plants and animals going extinct....living in endangered areas, their numbers dwindling, the poachers encroaching. .....
But oh! The thought of peoples and cultures vanishing....their traditions fading, their populations diminishing, their lifestyles unsupported....until one day, they are no more.
Jimmy Nelson is chasing after vanishing tribes, trying to capture their images on film with his large plate field camera. ...
It may soon be too late for us to see them ourselves.....
But at least we can know their beauty in the pages of his book, Before They Pass Away....
If you are in New York, see Jimmy Nelson's important work at the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, starting today until April 18.
You know, perhaps, that I believe in magic. Real magic.
And so I can remember this story clearly, even though it’s been years. I was in Senegal on assignment, and I was struggling with a problem. No matter my attempts to address it – blatant ignoring, cajoling conversations, interventions by third parties, etc. – the problem wouldn’t go away.
Now I had been to Senegal before. Indeed, it had been my first posting overseas and so its cities and streets, its traditions and rituals held a certain memory for me. So I wasted no time -- I took a boat out to Goree Island in the very first days.
Now Goree Island is a place famous for its sad and then triumphant history. It’s also famous for its fakirs or marabouts, traditional healers or witch doctors (depending on your persuasion and perspective). So I went and I found him -- the Marabout/fakir/witchdoctor. I told him my problem, and he nodded. I can fix that, he said simply. He then did some things and gave me some things. And in the days and weeks to come, my problem went away. Just. Like. That. And it’s been gone until this very day.
If I want to keep the problem at bay, it is said that I must never tell anyone what the problem was or what the fakir did to dispel it. And so I won’t. I will simply tell you that I believe that talismans, prayer beads and cowrie shells (believed to have intrinsic powers) have a place around your neck and in your home. Oh yes. Yes, they do.
I bought this beautiful collection for you. Just in case you needed one or two. I know I do.
Purchase any of these beauties for yourself or for someone going through a difficult time and needing a little magic. You can buy them right here.
Photos by the talented Natalie Opocensky. My favorite book, Maroc, by Albert Watson.
I love things like New Year's Resolutions. There's something so, well, hopeful about them. So earnest. And while it's fair game to be snarky about resolutions (after all, they are so easily made and so hard to keep), I think they're an opportunity to call forth a more aspirational version of ourselves.
I like to boil my resolution down to one word. More like a guiding principle reduced down its very essence.
So here is my word of the year.....
