This image takes us to the most romantic city in the world, Paris. The beautiful skyline was taken from the top of the Notre Dame, where you can see the most famous landmark, “The Eiffel Tower,” in the city. Every year people travel to Paris with hopes of either falling in love, recapturing love or just simply being with the one you love. There is a sense of magic about Paris that brings romance and fantasies to our mind. This image plays out those fantasies. The costumed men, who I shot during the Carnival in Venice, are like marionettes coming down from the sky spreading the “magic seeds of love.” It is about bringing love into one’s life, with someone else or just within yourself, loving who you are.

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This piece is about taking chances in life and believing in your self. If you don't take that leap, you will never know what lies ahead of you. It's about moving ahead and believing that you can conquer anything. The diver is leaping off the building, believing that she is good enough, and knowing that she will land on her feet. That is absolute faith.

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The picture of the Grand Canal was shot from the Rialto Bridge, around 6:00 am to give Venice the look of an old movie set with the empty balconies and the deserted canal. The Montage was made by combining the famous Trevi fountain in Rome, which I shot a few days later, to give the image a surreal scenario of Gondoliers going down a waterfall in total control, for the more adventure seeking tourists.

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This crazy picture has skiers from Aspen, Lake Tahoe and Crans. The mountains are the Swiss Alps and the bridge was taken in Basel. Everybody was assembled in this piece for an impossible skiing scenario over a bridge that would be the largest in the world if it were to be true. Basically, this bridge allows you to ski from one resort to the next, something I always wished I could do. I don’t know how anybody would get up there before coming down though.

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Monotony pretty much exists in everyone’s life. Some of us are so caught up in it, we don’t even realize it. Life becomes a routine and we find ourselves doing the same old thing everyday. The horses in this image go around in circles everyday on the Carousel. It’s typical life for them and that’s what they know to do. Perhaps, it’s healthy sometimes to just break away from routine and discover what else the world has to offer. Maybe we’ll find happiness we never knew existed. This piece all started, when looking through my photographs, I noticed that the heads of the two horses in the front were forming the shape of a heart. All I could see was beauty, tenderness and love.

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There's always been a time in our lives where we thought, "If I could do things all over again, I would do them differently". Of course, we made our choices and learned from them, which led us to a different and better path. But, what if we could erase the past and be able to start over? "Spiritual Re-boot" is about releasing our inner conflicts and being given a 2nd chance to do things differently. The way you wish you could have done them. The woman in the image is struggling to release her inner conflict. She wants out. At the bottom of the piece, her 3rd eye has the sight of the way her new life should be and will lead her through the tunnel, upon which she will be given a 2nd chance to re-boot her system and start her life over.

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Ludwig II was a hopeless dreamer who had a hard time with real life. He had the Castle of Neuschwanstein built in Bavaria. The castle is now perched over Hong Kong in this particular montage. There is a contrast between the New and the Ancient, the noble and the common people, the top and the bottom. But mostly, this represents the paranoia of being safe to an extreme, such as the "Howard Hughes syndrome of safety concerns". Is the top necessarily better? Not if your mental health is a bit shaky...

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With all the pressure in today's society to look good, people forget what real beauty is all about, which brings us to the concept of this piece. You have the huge gaping mouth, but as you enter it, you are walking through the beautiful pathways of Carmel and ending up at the Taj Mahal, one of the "seven wonders of the world". If you don't take a chance to know what's inside, you may be missing out on some of the most beautiful things you have ever seen. It goes back to the old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover".

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This piece is about absorbing things in life around you. Taking in what is important and learning from it. Normally, people study and "pour over their books". In this image, life and knowledge (the books) are coming to you. We learn from other people or even from our own mistakes. You cannot read about everyday life. You have to live it, experience it and make yourself a better person from it. It is not something that can be taught to you. If you are open minded, it will come to you, like the gentleman in the image who has opened his mind. The library was taken at a private men’s club in Uptown Manhattan and the building underneath was shot in Paris.

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The famous Bridge of Sighs in Venice is pictured here in the Duomo of Milan, one of the tallest, most impressive gothic cathedrals in the world. The title of this piece is a pun on the most requested song by the tourists to their Gondolier, when they take a ride through the canals of Venice.

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Quick decisions can be dangerous. While skiing off trail in Verbier, Switzerland, I saw an edge I thought would be fun to jump over. My friends called my name because they wanted to head in the opposite direction for lunch. Knowing I would lose them, I braked and looked over the edge to see what I missed. To my surprise, I noticed there was a steep cliff with a chalet at the bottom. My friends saved my life that day.

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SOLD OUT

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The Brookln Bridge was an old negative from my Grandfather. I placed the newylwed couple on top of a transformed lighthouse that I had shot in Normandy. After completing the Photo Montage I used an airbrush to create the fog to give a sense of higher altitude. I wanted them to feel like they were on top of the world.

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I used to hear in my childhood that if I would dig deep enough into my sandbox, I would eventually make it to China. This was the idea behind this Photo Montage. The "Glory Hole" of Lake Berryessa in Northern California has to be shot at the right time of the year for the spillway to be working and give the effect I was looking for. The city in the background is of old New York. This photograph was taken by my Grandfather with his old Hasselbald, as was this photo of the Queen Elizabeth.

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It is possible that San Marco's square could be flooded under a foot of water, but it is quite rare. San Marco's square could never be under swells of this magnitude. The photograph of the storm was taken in the Pacific from a large sailboat. I combined the two photographs to create this surrealistic image in order to follow my twisted artistic vision. The swells of the ocean are so beautiful as is the majestic architecture of the famous San Marco's Basilica and the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.

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Just when we think we’ve turned the page on an unpleasant past, we turn and find that it has pursued us into the present. As a result, we desperately look for new avenues of escape, so that we can begin an entirely new chapter.

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While visiting in Beverly Hills one day, I noticed this unbelievably beautiful tree in the park. I came back the next day with my camera and couldn’t stop shooting the tree. I was mesmerized. I went back in my library of negatives and found a picture of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris to combine with the tree. The entrance of the tree I shot in Petra, Jordan quite some time ago and the boats in the background were taken in Monterey.

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This piece has to do with East Coast vs West Coast. The idea came from my wife who has lived in both LA and New York City. She would always mention the difference in the pace between the two cities. New York is fast paced, people always on the go, running from one place to the next with a hotdog in their hand. They are movers and shakers and things get done. I always admired the work ethics of New Yorkers. Los Angeles, on the hand, is much more kickback and relaxed. Things get done at it’s own pace, people are less stressed and with all the traffic, you wonder if anyone ever works. I always thought how great it would be to bring a little California to New York and a little New York to California. I have a great admiration for both cities and decided to put my vision into my photography.

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The tree is a Morton Bay fig tree, which I shot in Beverly Hills. I then went on to place it in San Francisco. You can see the famous Ghirardelli sign and the trolleys that are so characteristic of the city. The tree could be mistaken for a giant octopus. The roots of the tree look like tentacles and the cars could be gobbled up. There is no light at the end of the tunnel, so you don't know if they will ever get out.

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This piece is about city life and everything it has to offer. I love the urban lifestyle, fine restaurants, the theater, tall buildings, etc. The hands in the image are digging into the ground to "pick up" a piece of the city for you to sample. Take it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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Do you really know someone as well as you thought? We expose ourselves as little or as much as we choose, but sometimes it’s good to keep a little air of mystery or intrigue and let people discover you slowly. They might like what they uncover.

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Dreams have the ability to relieve stress...

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There are many places in the world that we all would love to visit, but never seem to have the time or the money to do it.  The world is so spread apart with so many undiscovered places.  Welcome to EconoTour.  We bring the world to you.  In a short amount of time, you can visit the Sphinx in Egypt, perhaps even take a camel ride along the way, walk through the Hanging Monastery in Shanxi, China, explore the Eltz Castle in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, even watch the Greek guards of Athens perform their changing of the guard, maybe get adventurous mingling with the wild animals on an African safari, take a stroll across the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, catch a Broadway show in Times Square or just sit outside in a French café across the street from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to people watch.   Come join us for an unforgettable day of adventure.

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Wouldn't it be nice if things didn't have to be so perfect? If we messed up, we would all just blend in and nobody would notice (like the cat who fell asleep in the tree in this image). All pressure would be off and we wouldn't have to be afraid to make mistakes. People would take more chances and not be afraid of the outcome. It might bring out the best in us. The tree is a beautiful example.

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I took the city of Paris, also known as the "City of Lights", and decided to look at it from a different perspective. The light bulbs above are lighting up the city at night, as you see a person looking down on the city to see everything it has to offer. It is the complete tour of Paris from above. The lampshade on the Eiffel Tower represents the night. This is my version of the City of Lights.

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The idea for this piece came after a long needed vacation to Nantucket. It is a beautiful island with deserted beaches and quaint little villages. By the time we left, I felt rejuvenated and ready to work again. This image allows you to do the same thing. People are heading towards the light and leaving all their worries behind. It is the perfect place to unwind. The city below is Paris and the lighthouse was taken in Nantucket.

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Haven't we all had fantasies about the perfect vacation and meeting the man or woman of our dreams? Just the two of you walking hand in hand as if no one else exists. The warm summer breeze blowing through your hair, the smell of suntan lotion, the sand caressing your toes, and the salty scent of the ocean. Looking into each other's eyes and wanting the moment to never end. Aaaah, life is beautiful. Not a worry in the world. If you believe, when you least suspect it, your fantasy will one day present itself and will leave you smiling.

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Have you ever jumped in the ocean and wondered what lies beneath you? Your imagination runs wild and sometimes you just rather not know. But, what if I am missing out on something absolutely amazing? We have all stumbled upon this at least once in our lives. Should I or shouldn't I? We all need to take chances whether they pay off or not. You don't want to spend your life saying "what if..." The swimmer in the image has jumped in the water and is debating whether to conquer his fear of seeing what is actually beneath him. Something exciting awaits him, if he will take the chance and conquer his fears. Things don't always work out the way we want them to, but at least we can say we tried. I can live with that. The city below is the beautiful city of Prague.

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We are all used to taking off on a vacation and touching down in our destination of choice. Instead, for a change, wouldn’t it be great to just dive into one? How easy would that be?

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Anybody visiting Prague has to see the Charles bridge with all its statues. It is known as one of the most romantic cities in the world but struck me also for the presence of God, who is represented everywhere.

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So many works of Art can be so incomprehensible. Everytime I go to the museums of Contemporary Art, I can see installations and “so called” works of Art costing an obscene amount of money. I honestly don’t understand them and I don’t get it. I decided to do a piece completely “over the top” to express my frustration about not understanding so many peculiar things about this world we live in.

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So many times I have felt like a fish out of water. In this day and age where people desperately try to be accepted, so they do what is “cool” and trendy instead of being themselves. I worship diversity and originality and I think being different is good.

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“Tearful Encounter” is about reuniting with the one you love. Many couples today are apart from each other for many different reasons, such as a partner serving in the military, perhaps a job overseas, or as in my case, meeting my wife while on vacation and living on separate continents. You could be reuniting with a long lost love. No matter the situation, the reunion when meeting again, getting the “butterflies” in your stomach, makes it all worthwhile.

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I remember laying on the grass and looking down at the sky and imagining I was flying above the clouds under me. I like to flip photos around to give a sense of altitude. The upside down photo at the top is the northern coast of California. The two yoga instructors were taken in a studio and later placed on this rock. The final image is perfectly balanced from angle to angle. He is supporting her and she is supporting him with her legs. They symbolize the perfect couple like two pieces in a puzzle.

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Music is very subjective. Everyone’s taste in the type they like, varies. We all dislike some sort of music, but there is one thing for sure, we cannot live without it.

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The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is close to the river Seine but far away from the largest train station in Europe; the Stazione Garibaldi in Milano. I united them in this piece.

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The Flatiron building in New York is one of the most photographed architectural masterpiece. I put a “Big Apple” twist to it and a Magritte “flair” via his famous painting called “The Son of Man”. In Magritte’s painting, the apple is untouched. I couldn’t resist the temptation of having the apple consumed, because of the implication of the consequences of such an act. We are not perfect, because we tasted the apple…

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At one time or another, we have all wished we could fly. Soar through the sky like a bird. In this image, we are doing it with a bit of a “Magritte / Mary Poppins" inspiration. It is my little twist of artistic fantasy in one.

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Not everyone is as they seem. Sometimes it’s better not to put all your cards on the table, in order to be able to uncover the real person. Slowly revealing ones self is often more rewarding than quick answers.

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I often get asked by people what kind of drugs do I use to get my ideas. I never work under the influence of any drug and the ideas pop up like accidents, or do they? I don’t believe in pushing my personal beliefs onto anyone but I have to admit I sometimes feel blessed with the help of a superior friend guiding me in my work. Although it may seem like I am alone, I don’t feel like I am.

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The photos of the swans were taken on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, while the location is actually in Prague with the famous Charles Bridge. Swans are a sign of beauty and with Prague being one of the most beautiful cities I have visited, it seemed natural to place them together. The birth of a new swan is happening in the hand above which represents purity.

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I remember waiting 8 hours to see the traveling Tutankhamen exhibit in London a few decades ago. After the long wait, we were rushed through the exhibit. I have never forgotten it, which is where the inspiration for “Drive-Thru Gallery” came about. Today, we are living in a fast pace world where people aren’t taking the time to enjoy special moments, such as looking at Art in the museums or even taking the time to notice all the beautiful things that surround you. I personally enjoy going to museums alone, so that I can just stand there and stare at a piece for a while, and enjoy it, because that’s what it’s all about...

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I lived in L.A. for about 8 years and met quite a few Actor/Model/Waiters who were going to become famous, they told me. They would talk about all the possibilities and movies they had a chance to be in. The other thing they would keep saying was, that if they really wanted it, they would one day, make it. I always thought that it wasn’t how much you wanted it, because there are quite a few people out there who wanted it, and never got it. People tend to focus on the arrival point and forget to enjoy the moment. It would be like focusing on a goal while playing soccer. Lord knows how rare it is to score in soccer! The fun is all that happens during the game. The attempts at scoring, the blocking etc… If you score that’s great, but it isn’t the only thing going on, during the 90 minutes of a game. If you really enjoy and focus on the “now’, that’s how you eventually get somewhere, and if you don’t, at least you had fun while trying.

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Going to the South of France to shoot the famous wild white horses in Camargue was not the dream I expected it to be. It was windy and extremely dusty. Taking pictures of the Swiss Alps from 3000 meters high, on skis, was a lot closer to being a “dreamy” situation. The common denominator between the horses and the mountains covered in snow was the color “white.” Since I only shoot in Black and White, this may not seem to be an important issue because most other colors turn out to be a shade of grey. But I think the pure white color of the horses had an impact on me and therefore inspired me to combine their forms with the white snow. There is no other logical reasoning behind this combination other than the beauty and purity of the white horses and the breathtaking Alps.

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About an hour drive outside of Bangkok, there is a tourist attraction called the “Floating Market”. I had seen it well over 20 years ago. In fact, my passion for photography started when I bought a camera before my first trip to Thailand. If I hadn’t gone on that trip, I may not be what I am today, a Fine Art photographer. The floating market is already a surreal experience, but I thought it would be even more strange to put the market in a hallway of the palace of Versailles. The combination of Asia with European architecture and the “outdoors” with the “indoors,” makes it totally impossible; something I absolutely thrive on.

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Sometimes the most difficult thing for an artist is to know when to stop adding elements to a piece. Perfection is attained when everything needed is there. My work and style as a photographer is to not photograph San Francisco or Paris as it is, but to transform a city and make it different by combining several images to make a surreal vision or situation by putting famous iconic things in the wrong place or making them become something else. I sometimes wish I could draw my thoughts because the possibilities seem to be endless and thus makes things a little easier. The result and effect wouldn’t be the same because it would just be another surreal painting or drawing. The fact that my medium is photography makes the viewer more perplexed because of the concept that photography captures the “real” and things that do exist, as opposed to the impossible.

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The building comes from the medieval town of St Paul de Vence, in the South of France. I placed the architectural structure on top of an old car called the “deux chevaux.” This classic French car took its name from its two horsepower engines. It was my older brother’s very first car. The maximum speed was 50 miles an hour on a flat surface. You could roll the rubber top off like a can of sardines and feel the wind in your hair. If you look closely, you can see through the grill that a girl is playing pool inside the engine.

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This piece spans three continents: Europe, Asia and America. The odd tree trunk with the tunnel in it was taken in Thailand, whereas, the river was shot from a castle in Aigues-Mortes located in the South of France and finished with the statue of Liberty at the entrance of New York. The immigrants would go around it when they arrived in the United States by sea and stopped at Ellis Island to clear customs. I found it more amusing to have boats go right through it and ironically, through a “tunnel” underneath the great symbol that the statue represents.

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There are two “lucky” factors that got me involved indirectly with “Cirque du Soleil”. The first is the fact that I live in Las Vegas and the second is that I speak French. So it was inevitable that I would eventually meet a French Canadian living in Vegas and working for the organization that has over six shows on the Strip. I told him that I constantly hear “Cirque du Soleil” mentioned when people comment on my work. I asked him if he could introduce me to one of their performers. He presented me to a very talented mime named Joerg Lemke. Shooting Joerg was very inspiring because his poses were already surreal before I even put my touch and did any photo-montage. I decided to do a series of three pieces called the “Joerg Series.” This is the first of the three…

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This the second piece of the “Joerg Series.” Joerg Lemke is a very talented mime from the “Cirque du Soleil” cast of the show “KA” at the MGM. For the very first time, I took my inspiration from the more “traditional” photographers such as Herb Ritts or Mapplethorpe. Of course I had to put the usual twist, otherwise it wouldn’t be me. Although it may look like a traditional nude shot, it is not because this pose is practically impossible just like all my other pieces…

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I hear “Cirque du Soleil” and MC Escher a lot when people comment on my pieces. So Joerg Lemke, a cast member of the show “KA”, did this “twisting walk” that is not a photography trick, but a pose he can actually do. I placed him on a spiral staircase leading to the top of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The result was this piece reminiscent of one of my favorite artists of all time: MC Escher. This is the third and final piece of my “Joerg Series.”

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There can be many different personalities when it comes to people. Some people are two-faced, which makes it very difficult trying to figure them out. They may be very nice to your face and the second you turn around, they stab you in the back. Or, some people just have multiple personalities. This is what the woman in the image represents. There are faces hidden in the photo that show the personalities within her. Which ones are real? Can you trust them? All the photographs were taken in Hawaii.

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We have all heard the saying “You are nuts!” Although there are many interpretations, it usually has to do with risk taking of some sort. Instead of putting all our nuts in one basket, I stuck them on the Banyan tree in Lahaina. There are some daredevil bicyclists riding on the narrow branches and there are plenty of couples who are just nuts about each other.

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My surreal Style as a photographer sometimes overlaps into the realm of Fantasy. This piece draws it’s inspiration from “A Book of Dreams” by Peter Reich. The father of the main character in the book owned a rain-making machine called a “Cloudbuster”. The English singer Kate Bush had a top ten hit in the 80’s called “Cloudbusting”. In the video, Donald Sutherland was operating this machine by pointing it to the sky. My version of the cloudbuster would be a big pitcher catching the clouds and turning them into a waterfall,instead of rain. The Swiss Alps are a breathtaking view and the perfect backdrop for this piece. When you see such an amazing sight, you realized how small we are, next to such an impressive series of massive mountains. We often look at the little things and problems in our daily lives instead of looking at the big picture. If we did this more often, we would realize how lucky we really are…

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I noticed quite a few artists do pieces about sports. I don’t want to fall in the “commercial trap” by going down the list of all the sports in order to “sell” to a larger quantity of people. I wanted to do a piece with a subject that is close to my heart. Since I play tennis regularly three times a week, I thought I could do something involving the sport that I really loved. The reason I love tennis is because it is a mental game like Chess, with the added physical activity. I also like the fact that you are alone and the only one to blame in case of a loss, is yourself. Living in the desert, I have played many times in the blazing hot sun in a quasi-delirious state. Not so bad a state that I was hallucinating and playing on the wing of a plane, but I have come very close…

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