What I’ve found from doing this blog since 2005 is that my interests lie not in the latest trends or the buzz around things like that. Just like photographs, my yardstick is, how will it age in 20 years?
I recently was interested in entering a competition for one of my photographs. Reading the list of rules, I came to one: photographs must have been made in the last five years.
I knew where this was going. This particular competition was fixated on budding images curated by divergent life stylists, not yesterday’s shots (and observations) by an older white male. No.
This infatuation (root word from the Latin fatuus = “foolish”) with those raw and energetic expressions, which haven't passed the test of time is probably more of an issue with me. I’m constantly seeking to work outside the hourglass, knowing the sands of time are drying up.
Next year, working on a project for 2025, which will mark 60 years of making photographs. The thought is 60 or so photographs that I have shot over the past 60 years, making it into a book.
The odd thing is, 60 photographs over 60 years - taken at speeds of 1/125th 1/250th 1/500th, even 1/30th of a second – added up, maybe taking up the combined time of one second! Compressing 60 years into one second. A life’s work in photography in the blink of an eye. In those 60 years, almost 2 billion seconds, all I can find is one second to circumscribe what it is I have been searching for, in all that time? Sisyphus, meet Empedocles.
So, what on the wine trail in Italy is relevant to this tract I am currently pursuing? Whenever I have been on the wine trail, I’ve usually had a camera with me. Are any of those pictures candidates for one or more of the 60 images that will make up the one second of the last 60 years that I have been on the lookout for?
The short answer is yes. The more detailed answer is a little more nuanced than that. It has to do with what I really think my mission on earth is.
I know now that it wasn’t to make the world safe for Italian wine. I used to say I wasn’t in the war business, and the wine business was a much more peaceable pursuit. That it is, save for the damage that the unabated misuse of alcohol, of which wine possesses, can have to health and life.
No, I wasn’t making anything safe for anyone. I was supporting a little family, working with family-owned farms and small businesses, as well as large ones. It was in a time when wine really came into our culture in a big way. I was a foot soldier, for sure. But I wasn’t there to make any heraldic changes.
What I was, and still am, is the observer, taking one long look at life on this wonderful little orb in the corner of an obscure galaxy full of uncertainty and constant change. I’ve been there to witness some of that, as we all have. I just happened to have a camera with me, most of the time, so I could call up all those lost fractions of a second that pass by us continuously.
So, be on the lookout for that in 2025.
As for wine thoughts? Well, I’ve downsized my wine collection to a less wieldy amount of wine that is more manageable. I still have a hefty number of older wines, 25+ years old (30% of the lot) that will need to be opened in the next few years.
Christmas day I opened a 2006 Barbi Brunello di Montalcino. Parker’s Wine Advocate had this note: “The 2006 doesn’t look to have the structure of vibrancy to support long-term cellaring, but it should drink nicely for at least a number of years. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2022.(92/100).” With that in mind, I expected a wine that, once again, I had waited too long to open. Fortunately, the wine didn’t follow the journey laid out by the experts. This bottle was fully alive and ready to drink and enjoy. No off-putting caramel or Marsala-like flavors. The nose was bright and attentive, a little touch of cedar. We had it with a nice slab of medium-rare prime rib and it was a pretty perfect match. Well balanced, the tannins were calm but not wishy-washy. The vigorous quality that attracts me to a Brunello, especially with a rich, hearty cut of meat, was in full regalia on Christmas evening. Quite a nice surprise. I have more of the 2006 as well as the 2005, from Barbi. So, that will be a pleasant anticipation for future days.
Today marks 19 years I’ve been blogging on the wine trail in Italy. I think I’m going to make it to 20 and then we’ll see. This blog has zigged and zagged over the years. Thanks for reading and following.
