Vali was amazing, such an inspiration. She lived the fuck you life that I wish I had the guts for. She went where she wanted, lived in a cave, at the Chelsea hotel, wherever she layed her head. She had a face covered in tattoos and wore layers and layers of the most colourful clothing. She danced when she felt like dancing, she purred like a cat when she felt the need to do that too. Being with her was outer worldly. One of my greatest regrets was not spending more time with her while she was alive and not taking the invitation to visit her in her valley in Positano. But her friendship was one of the most inspiring of my life. One of the last times I saw her was purely by chance and I suspect not by accident. The day after I arrived home from many many months overseas, I walked around the corner in my home town with my mum to see Vali sitting outside a cafe, no one else around her except her companion. I didn’t expect her to remember me but she did, immediately. She referred to me as ‘the race car driver’ from a story I had told her when we first met about driving my dad’s race car and at the time being the fastest woman on Australian salt!
I took some amazing pictures of her. I was going through them just recently and was actually surprised that there was only really about 6 or 7 films worth, my memories
seemed like there was so many more, and I guess the richness of the experience and the colour and vibrancy of the shots I did take had clouded my memories. I hope you enjoy my pics of Vali ( I have a lot more too which I will post some other time when I'm feeling nostalgic for her ) but please remember, they are mine, i took them, and if you want to copy or use them for anything, just do the right thing and contact me first. Tah.
1 comment:
i have been rereading the only book about her that seems to be around- what a woman.
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