I am looking through my window at my condo in New York City, on the 25th floor, a cup of coffee, Colombian, of course and I am thinking, it’s quiet, (it’s still early in the Big Apple), how different my life would have been if I was still in Colombia, good or bad, but very different…
I left my country so many years ago that I have forgotten the taste of a lot of things… or how slow life is over there. NYC has brought out something in me that I didn’t know I had… Tenacity and ambitions…
Now, I travel between Canada and USA and I wonder how did all this start? I used to meet my dear friend Marilou for a coffee. Now, I meet her for a video conference, we don’t talk often as we used to but instead we text each other every day. She is always in a fashion show or a show, either writing about it or being a guest. As for me, I travel in between my studios here in NYC and my 2 studios in Canada, Montreal and Ottawa, the city I call home, where I think I will always go back.
Smells like Fall, it is the year of 2018 and Central Park looks amazing with wonderful colours, a nice cold breeze coming into my place… Today, September 12th is my birthday and I have decided to wake up ealier than usual and go for a run… I went to Central Park, I took the subway and I grabbed a coffee by the Starbucks by my house, all was so quiet, but the rush was about to start, the subways in NYC are always crazy… Fall has always made me feel melancholic. It brings this feeling of peace and silence for me. I love this time to have photo shoots. Designers always come up with great pieces at this time of the year… I have so many ideas in my head right now… here behind me, I have my table and the wall full of notes so I don’t forget what I have in mind… I don’t relay in my memory I might forget things.
The streets are getting busier by the second and I still don’t know what I am doing today. Hey, it’s my birthday! I will probably enjoy a quiet day and wait for my loved ones to call me… I will have my phone on me, but nothing else. I will call my mama to remind her that today, many years ago I was born, she will probably remember after I mention this, it will be funny… I miss her, I miss them but I will be there soon… in my little town where I was born… where all this began many years ago.
I can say who will call first today and I am sure that she knows I am awake, but as usual I don’t know in what time zone she is… Istanbul? Rome? Barcelona? Athens? London? I won’t be surprise if she calls me from somewhere in the Philippines, Negros Occidental, where she is from… or perhaps messaging people or publishing something from Manila International Airport ready to board a plane to go to Paris, she knows I would jealous, I love Paris. I know, this winter, we will be enjoying a coffee somewhere in the tropic but I still would like to go to Slovenia, it is up for discussion…
2018, has been a great year… I have just finished a campaign for GAP. I always dreamed about it, since my years as a public servant and my SONY camera, when I was photographing 20YS at lunch time or a coffee breaks, we used to take long ones, then all this was just a dream, now it’s a brand… wow!
How with time, things change…. Now GAP knows who I am, knows that my studio - YouGotSquared can do this… we started all these as a joke, now it is my life… it’s my baby, well, not a baby anymore, it’s my teenager and soon, it will mature even more… GAP is now, soon there will be other designers… I know it will come it a matter of time…
My GAP campaign for summer 2019:
It’s time for breakfast, there is still some coffee left, I will get some more…. I am hungry, what to eat… hmmm… Yes, today it’s my birthday, for a moment I forgot… well, today I will eat out… this is something I never enjoyed, my close friends know it… I will order some eggs, I want 3, I want brown toast, no butter but lots of peanut butter... I feel like eating bacon… and potatoes… meh, I will exercise more tomorrow. I want to read the paper…
Okay, here I am, reading the NY times… wow, front pages, not good news, and today is not about the bad news, today is about the good ones… I am going to read my horoscope… and it says, Life is treating you well, be patient it’s a matter of time… oh wow… it’s perfect!... I noticed that there are not so many copies of the paper, everything has gone electronic but I still buy it, I like the experience of reading like that.
Breakfast is here… hmmm it looks amazing, eggs sunny side up, perfect! I can smell the orange coming from the glass… toast, hmmnn, not so good, they put butter on them, I will eat them, good, I also ordered a croissant… I am taking my time to eat… this moment is priceless… my phone still has not rang… it’s early for most people, its 7am…
Photo credit: Davida Ocran Photography, 20YS and YouGotSquared.
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