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Conversations are at the heart of what it means to be human.<br />
-Theodore Zeldin
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The wise beyond his years intense look of the little man on the left, contrasted with the sweet demeanor of the other is a juxtaposition I love.
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These women lazily lay there, like they were etched in stone, idly watching him as he cleaned the Louvre.
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A good motivation is what is needed: compassion without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their human rights and dignities. That we humans can help each other is one of our unique human capacities.<br />
- Dalai Lama<br />

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While wandering through a tiny village void of tourists, I saw older men enter through a huge archaic door that led into a large stone building. Curious, I followed up several stories of stone steps. At the top was a dimly lit room with a cracked door into a private "mens only" club. They invited me in to play cards and pool- it was a memorable afternoon.
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It's no coincidence that man's best friend cannot talk.<br />
-Anonymous
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A la Mere de Famille, founded in 1761. If making a bouquet edible sounds appealing, the Rosewater Turkish delight tastes like roses.
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The jazz coming from the window pierced the stillness of this rainy night- reminding me of Duke Ellington’s words:
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“By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.” <br />

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The d'Orsay Museum is a former train station; likely the massive clock was installed to help passengers get to their trains on time. This old world engineering is a magnificent piece of functional art.
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A group of artists and writers climbed up a dilapidated, broken ladder to a rooftop overlooking where Jim Morrison passed. We had a party with a 360 degree view of Paris. For a couple seconds, this man came to his window, bestowing to us his silhouette.<br />
“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”<br />
- Jim Morrison<br />

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If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. - Albert Einstein
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I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown.<br />
It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.<br />
- Charlie Chaplin
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In the island villages, saleswomen roam on foot, pushing large carts filled with home goods. After the daily afternoon siesta, housewives and ya ya’s (grandmothers) gather and discuss potential purchases.
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Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.<br />
- Socrates
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There is an atmosphere of spiritual effort here.<br />
No other city is quite like it. <br />
- James Joyce
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Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.<br />
- Albert Einstein<br />

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Irresistibly cute- his feet hovered in mid air for the whole conversation with his teacher.
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What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals.
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Be gentle to all, and stern with yourself.<br />
- St. Teresa of Avila
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When one has consorted with a beggar, and found that they are ordinary human beings, one cannot help being struck by the curious attitude that society takes towards them... He seldom extracts more than a bare living…and he pays for it over and over in suffering.<br />
Money has become the grand test of virtue…By this test beggars fail…If one could earn even ten pounds a week at begging, it would become a respectable profession immediately.<br />
- George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London<br />

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The thing that impressed me then as now about New York ... was the sharp, and at the same time immense, contrast it showed between the dull and the shrewd, the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, the wise and the ignorant.<br />
- Theodore Dreiser
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Café contemplation in the center of intellectual life on the Left Bank. Looking out on the upscale Boulevard Saint-Germain, where influential personalities of the 20th Century frequent, including renown writers politicians, journalists, and artists.
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Good talkers are only found in Paris.<br />
- Francois Villon<br />

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Paris is a mighty schoolmaster,<br />
a grand enlightener of the provincial intellect. <br />
- Mary Elizabeth Braddon
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Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.<br />
- Bertrand Russell
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There is something about the outside of a horse<br />
that is good for the inside of a man.<br />
- Winston Churchill
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There are only two places in the world where we can live happy: at home and in Paris.<br />
- Ernest Hemingway<br />

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"Noi non potemo avere perfetta vita senza amici."<br />
We cannot have a perfect life without friends.<br />
- Dante<br />

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It is important to be chic.<br />
- Roberto Cavilli
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Casa Batlló, one of Antoni Gaudí’s masterpieces, evokes the dreamlike quality of Gaudí’s works. This outer façade features pillowy curves and graceful, whimsical lines. The stone seems molded in a way to be reminiscent of sinew and bones.<br />
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Famed Barcelonian architecture has a fanciful vibe, a bit funky and hallucinogenic, like Alice in Wonderland.
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A feeling like Van Gogh’s "Cafe Terrace at Night" brought to life.
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Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.<br />
- Francis Bacon, Sr.
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An eclectic group was chanting and dancing while the sun was setting on Arpoador beach. Here this colorful character is doing the moonwalk while Michael Jackson is blasting on a boom box.
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This hazy, dreamy horizon is a typical view from a point where huge rocks jut into the water, where Arpoador and Copacabana Beaches meet. Daily pastel skies glow while iridescent water dances in front of Ipanema and Leblon.<br />
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Lovers and friends gather here daily to watch the sunset. As the sun slips behind the mountains, the locals clap and appreciate this splendor. They are not jaded and still see the beauty of this dazzling city.<br />
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This spectacular aspect is why Rio has the title of "Cidade Maravilhosa", Marvelous City.
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This part of the world is known for the rounded female derrière. A guy friend asked: "Is that real?!". Yes, this is the actual shape of her backside.<br />
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A friend who has lived around the world and now lives in Rio claims about the famed protruding butts: "It’s true and I don’t understand it. Maybe it is the food."
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In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.<br />
- Aristotle
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Although the same height and similarly coiffed, the six maidens are not the same: each face, stance, and hair is unique.
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At Cristo Redentor my assistant and I met this woman with a face that reveals many stories.
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Tavarua is a heart shaped island surrounded by a coral reef. As a girl, I had a poster in my bedroom of Tavarua, where white sand glistened beneath a bright azure sky. My dream was to visit.<br />
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I was determined to go to Tavarua despite storms and being advised it was risky. After a long and bumpy boat ride, where torrential downpours were so heavy we could barely see, we made it to this point. I took this image while standing in a topsy-turvy boat being tossed about standing in water.<br /><br />
This was the day before the world-famous surf competition known as the Volcom Pro, which showcases some of the biggest surf waves the world has ever seen.
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While exploring the shoreline, I stumbled across this secluded area that had winding pathways into the dense foliage. Just a few feet away, the Pacific Ocean is lapping up against the shore.
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Everything has a natural explanation. The moon is not a god, but a great rock, and the sun a hot rock.<br />
- Anaxagoras, Greek Philosopher<br />

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In this dramatic ceremony, the males moved in unison while the blazing sun sets in the background.
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The roots of Kecak date back to a trance dance that induced exorcism, called 'sanghyang'. This traditional dance was both graceful and furious, drawing the viewer in visually with ornate attire, dozens of loud and intense chanting men, and costumed creatures who were both gods and demons.
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A rich spiritual legacy permeates the fabric of Balinese culture. An ancient religious performance on a cliff at Uluwatu reveals The Hindu Ramayana story. On Rama's epic journey, otherworldly magic unfolds along with adventure, comedy, and moral lessons. This is a cherished story to the Balinese that has been passed down through the ages.
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Last rays of sun kiss earth,<br />
Golden light shifts to indigo night<br />
The golden temptress<br />
Beckons as she slips away<br />
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Setting ball of fire<br />
Dims to amber embers<br />
Waves lap at the feet<br />
Playing in a fiery sunset.
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This is menacing Ravana from the Hindu story of Ramayana. He tricks the heroine Sita and steals her away from her beloved Rama. Each year, many devout pilgrims trace Rama's journey through India, halting at each of the holy sites along the way.
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While exploring a small village on the island of Vitu Levu, I came across a local marketplace where this endearing little girl was working alongside her mother. Sporting her boyish Spiderman outfit, she was watching me with curiosity. When I started to take her photo, she lit up and started giggling.
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A beautiful woman delights the eye;<br />
a wise woman, the understanding;<br />
a pure one, the soul.<br />
- Minna Antrim
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Nature is a haunted house-- but Art -- is a house that tries to be haunted.<br />
- Emily Dickinson
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Deep in the jungle, our guide pointed out this isolated temple, shortly after coming within a few feet of a large python! This picture was taken from the shade of an enormous banyan tree, which is considered holy by Hindus.
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We need the tonic of wildness. At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us...<br />
- Henry David Thoreau<br />

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On the big island of Fiji I was driving on a remote road with a couple Fijians. On top of a small hill, this white horse was underneath a willow tree blowing in the breeze. Though a little unkempt, the horse looked majestic beneath this lone tree in the middle of nowhere.<br />
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I was compelled to stop the car. While taking photos of this horse, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and here was this adorable boy sporting a white tank top. He smiled sweetly. We talked for a bit and then I asked him, “Why don't you go say hello to the horse?”<br />
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They look fixedly at each other for a long time; this moment was magical.<br /><br />
The poetry of the earth is never dead.<br />
- John Keats<br />

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A child has no ego, no past or future. The child has no attachments, and because of this, he is able to express himself fully, without any prejudices or preconceived ideas.<br />
- Amma
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Breakfast delivered on the grounds of the Oberoi, known for its rustic elegance and old world service. The resort’s natural stone, wood and thatch has aged in a way that looks better with time.
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Finding Nirvana is like locating silence.<br />
- Jack Kerouac
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Emaho Sekawa is a luxurious one-villa resort, which overlooks a lush valley. There's a private pool with outdoor shower and daybed, perfect for lazy afternoons. A separate living room with a kitchen is adjacent to the bedroom.<br /><br />
The staff is all friendly locals. Accommodating and discrete, their relaxed warmth adds to the tranquility of the setting.<br />

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He who plants a coconut tree... Plants food and drink, vessels and clothing, a habitation for herself and a heritage for her children.<br />
- South Sea Proverb
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If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies.... It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it.<br />
- Albert Einstein
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A laugh is a smile that bursts.<br />
- Mary H. Waldrip
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Fijians are deeply connected to nature and their land. As was explained to me by locals, land is not viewed as a commodity, like westerners look at real estate. Instead, Fijians look at their land as a part of their soul - it is not something to be bought and sold. <br />
It is a core part of their heritage and something to be shared. It is their means of survival and a source of pride.
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Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books. <br />
- John Lubbock
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The Canada Lynx is a secretive and mostly nocturnal animal, living in dense forests. Largely solitary, they hunt usually by ambush, feeding predominantly on snowshoe hares and birds.
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God made the cat in order that humankind might have the pleasure of caressing the tiger.<br />
- Fernand Mery
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Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;<br />
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'<br />
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;<br />
Man got to tell himself he understand.<br />
- Kurt Vonnegut
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On the Fijian presidents boat at Port Denarau.
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Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.<br />
- John Muir
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Fiji’s flavorful foods are an interesting combination of South Pacific and Indian – with spices, mini peppers (seen here) roots, fish – food is nearly always purchased at open air markets instead of in grocery stores and is often manned by children.
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This fisherman is twirling worry beads, a relaxing, customary pastime of men. The beads are also considered an amulet to guard against bad luck.
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Paradise was made for tender hearts;<br />
hell, for loveless hearts.<br />
- Voltaire
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Amidst lush mountains, Emaho Sekawa rests atop a hill that overlooks a sparkling ocean, and a river valley with mangrove swamps. The rich craftsmanship and open air floor plan is both simple and elegant, and give a sense of relaxation and balance.<br />

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Life is short and we have not too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark way with us....Make haste to be kind.<br />
- Henri-Frederic Amiel
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It is said the bright white and cobalt blue colors predominant in the Cyclades, came about during the dictatorial rule of Metaxas in a quest for order and uniformity. The homes used to be ochre yellow and red earth tones.
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I met this beautiful girl while wandering through small pathways in a village. Her extended family invited me for dinners and shared about their lives, faith, and cultural heritage. Her mother is famous throughout the Cyclades for teaching historical dance.
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Pictured here, is the girl in centuries-old dance attire. Underneath her traditional skirt are modern breakdance pants, a dance which is also her passion.
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Each inhabited Cyclades island has its own unique dance and costume.
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Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond.<br />
- Hypatia, Greek Philosopher
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A rural view from a high point on one of the islands, with the glistening waters of the Agean below.
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One rainy day at an all men's cafe. Here men smoke, drink retsina and ouzo, joke, debate and play tavli.
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In 1956 a devastating earthquake collapsed many Santorini buildings, leading to a mass exodus.<br />
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This is in front of an abandoned home in ruins from the earthquake. The ceiling fell onto three young children and killed them, while the parents survived in the next room. The parents fled the island never to return.<br /><br />
Convinced the place was haunted, the villagers claimed they could hear eerie screams and voices at times on the property.
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The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.<br />
- Charles Kuralt
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The Creator made Italy from designs by Michaelangelo.<br />
-Mark Twain
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There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.<br />
- Sophia Loren
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Sporting red lips, pert hat and cigarette while brunching in the Athens Plaka.
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Ancient cave houses are nestled in the cliffs throughout the islands, and visually blend into the rock. This was strategic to not be discernable to pirates.<br /><br />
While exploring a remote village early one morning, I met this 83 year-old man who invited me into his cave house. He shared interesting pieces of his life. This included his baby crib from over 80 years ago, and intricate miniature wooden ships he crafted that lit up with tiny cars inside.<br />

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Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.<br />
-Anatole France
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Venice is a Los Angeles cultural hub known for its eccentricities- it's a hangout for creatives and free spirits. Millions of world travelers flock here a year, coming with the fanciful vision of the "California Dream."
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Igor (from Russia) is in this portrait. He is on the Ocean Front boardwalk, a a circus-like, long pedestrian promenade that features performers, mystics, artists and vendors. Countless movies, television shows and video games have shot in Venice.
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Recoleta is a strollable, affluent area known for Paris-style townhouses, lavish former palaces and posh boutiques. Here lies Recoleta Cemetery, where national icons like Eva Perón rest in extravagant tombs. One of the most awe inspiring places!
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Pop-up art galleries, late-night bars and street murals lend old San Telmo a bohemian vibe. Some of the areas in San Telmo are reminscient of Europe, like this classic bar & cafe.
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Favelas are Brazilian ghettos that make American slums look tame. Most are dangerous and ruled by drug lords- going into these alone could be risking your life. Anything considered an offense is dealt with swiftly within a shady self-policing structure.<br />
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A photojournalist told me of a time when he was invited to a big favela party. A frenetic energy filled the air as crowds gyrated to pounding music. On a stage, cartel kings danced with their arms up holding gold plated guns. These idolized leaders have the power and the goods. What is admired originates from corruption.<br />
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During my time in Rio, I became friends with someone who lives in a Favela. I went to explore this culture and was deeply moved by the people I met.<br />
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I met up with Val and Polina on a Medieval stone arch bridge. They are reality show celebrities for MTV Russia ("Holidays in Mexico").<br />
We had a lot of fun exploring Florence together. The Piazzale Michelangelo is where we landed up, where we ate and drank with a panoramic view of this magnificent city.
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For us to go to Italy and to penetrate into Italy is like a most fascinating act of self-discovery - back, back down the old ways of time.<br />
Strange and wonderful chords awake in us, and vibrate again after many hundreds of years of complete forgetfulness.<br />
- D.H. Lawrence
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This is my friend Yina, an adventuresome and strong young woman. She knows four languages, goes to school, and works hard. She moved to Rio because she thought there would be good work opportunities. An affordable place for her to live was a favela- a shanty town typically run by drug lords. This is shot from a favela overlooking the most expensive area of Brazil.
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Only in Rio for a year and a half, she has already been held up twice,harassed and stolen from. One was at gunpoint and a second time she was cornered with broken glass bottles. The system in Rio is oppressive, making it challenging to get ahead and make a stable life. Despite this, she has a positive and upbeat demeanor.
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In Italy, the concept of the family is very important.<br />
- Monica Bellucci
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Bois de Boulogne is a forest that is filled with transsexual prostitutes. It is a dangerous area. Prostitutes and pimps carry weapons for protection. Many are hurt physically in these clandestine meetings; all arguably are hurt and abused psychologically.
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Many prostitutes are foreign, undocumented, threatened by organized crime networks. Often they flee their countries that have social and political volatility and then have no ability to work legally. They are weakened due to economic vulnerability, poverty, home problems, racism and more.
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Prostitution has long-term traumatic consequences- including living with dissociation, a psychological anaesthesia to survive this kind of life. Being there was very moving, especially witnessing the evident unease, fear and pain etched on their faces.
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In a gathering place for eccentrics and homeless, I was moved by this solitary woman with swollen ankles covered in sores, and a pained yet beautiful face.<br />

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The air was soft, the stars so fine, <br />
the promise of every cobbled alley so great,<br />
that I thought I was in a dream.<br />
-Jack Kerouac
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A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of life.<br />
- Thomas Jefferson
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