Five Years Gone

It's been a long ride. A journey that started in a cold and rainy November evening in Stockholm, five years ago. It was one of those nights that you even strive to find the will to step out of your hotel room for dinner. I still recall the icy droplets tipping on the panes of my windows and myself in a white shower coat, sitting at the desk and waiting for the opening post of 591 to appear.

That's, photographically speaking, my greatest regret. I could have sat together with the founder of this enterprise while the its brainchild was gearing up and moving its first steps. I waited instead in a cozy and warm hotel room, few hundreds meters far from him, just because I was shy, lazy and felt inappropriate.

It's been a long ride and I nourished myself the conviction it would have lasted for much more. As life teaches every day, unfortunately, things are made to be born and die. Death, unlike birth, arrives inadvertently or after many unseen or misunderstood signs. And when it happens remorse takes possession of your mind. You look back at the time gone a regret for what you haven't been able to do, for what you've always postponed.

This evening was meant to be a moment of celebration. I prepared myself to that. Alas, as anticipated some weeks ago, Ulf decided it was time to roll the shutter down and close this experience. We were noticed about this just yesterday, soon after the last exhibition was out.

Needless to say I feel sad.