#16: Daimon

I don't do anything spectacular. But I see extraordinary things.

Back in 2016, Martino Pietropoli wrote a piece on my photography. It’s in Italian, I’ll translate:

“So Alina doesn't do anything spectacular.

She does not hang out with famous people, she does not visit memorable places or if she visits them she never photographs them iconographically. She always has an oblique gaze that seeks the surreal in every image.”

It left me flattered but perplexed. I thought I was only documenting my sad boring life. “Alina doesn’t do anything spectacular” stuck with me through all these years. I can see now that Martino was right.

A daimon is your shadow waving hello.

A daimon is a door handle inviting you in.

I first heard the word “daimon” from my husband. He used it to talk about my photography, and again, I was perplexed. But he was right too! Why is it that other people can better put into words what is it that I do?

Daimon is an ancient Greek word referring to supernatural beings or guiding spirits. It can also be a personification of abstract concepts and forces of nature. The way he first explained it to me was to imagine an open window and the sound of the wind. That sound is a daimon. Things coming alive. For me, it’s another word for the extraordinary of the mundane (cliché-but-true). Plus, if you repeat “daimon” and “mundane” long enough, they start sounding the same.

A daimon is a plant arching its back near the couch.

A daimon is the exploding colors of a flower.

Daimon is my second collection on Foundation. I chose images with a powerful light and equally powerful darkness—a necessary balance in all things (wait what? is that a Star Wars quote?)—and to bring out the aliveness of the subjects.

More than anything, I wanted to release something that fully represented my visual language. I wanted these photos to say “hi everyone. this is me. i don’t do anything spectacular, but the things i see are extraordinary.”

A daimon is the decay that brings new life in spring.

A daimon is the splashing rain on a summer day.

I believe it worked.

The fact that it happened in the NFT space is probably a coincidence. But maybe not. There’s something to be said about investing time and money — it forced me to believe in myself a little bit more.

A daimon is the wind whooshing through the window.

A daimon is the heat of the sun on the back of your head.

By this time next week, I’ll be in Italy. I’ll be back by the end of April. I don’t know if I’m going to send Dear Padua #5 while in Padua. Lots of thinking to do and sun to absorb. I predict it’s going to be emotional. Gah!

A bunch of links:

• Desire Path, the community of artists and photographers navigating web3, now has a newsletter (that I’m contributing to ☀️).

• 10 Breakthrough technologies - 2022. The world seems like a terrible place these days, and it is. But all these cool things are simultaneously happening.

• Of Course We’re Living in a Simulation. A fun thought experiment.

  The Oculus Virtual Reality headset is even more fun. Add me, I’m alinatrifan.

• Stop Taking Your Fears to Social Media.

See you soon,

Alina

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