august / december

The Summer of 1999, I spent some time in Hamburg, Germany. I had been working for German clients in Miami for years and that Summer I was invited by an agency to come and spend at least a month and meet new clients and work and hopefully make a lot of money. August in the modeling world is a very slow month and in some cities (Milan, Paris) there is actually no work at all and in others (New York) it is just very slow. Hamburg is one of the strange ciites where there is still a lot of work to be had in August so I thought it would be a good idea to go.

I did not know this until I got there, but Hamburg in August is like most other cities in, say, November.. The average temperature when I was there was 53 degrees and it rained Every. Single. Day. If you can overlook the weather (or are one of those sick people who enjoy that sort of thing) Hamburg is a beautiful city and it is only an hour or so by train from Berlin and I suggest anyone who is in the area to go at least for a few days.

Above and below are some pictures that I took when I was there. I made some really good friends when I was there, friends who I kept in touch with for years. Notice the turtle neck sweaters and jackets we are wearing? In August! Below are some pictures that I took while I was shooting a commercial in Berlin.

(and please excuse the quality of the photos, they are scans of pictures taken back when we used FILM if you can remember back that far...)

This morning I woke up to find that some very Hamburg-like weather had hit Miami. Chewy and I went on our morning walk and I was wearing long pants and a thermal hoodie (Chris's of course because I can no longer fit into any of mine) and the rain was sometimes coming sideways, which to me says;
"Let's get this walk over with as quickly as possible and get back to the nice dry house" but to Chewy said;
"Finally! Some decent weather to walk in! I can stop and smell every dripping wet plant and pile of garbage I pass on the street today and really enjoy this gorgeous weather!"
Looks like, for Chewy's sake, we should consider moving to Germany.
Or maybe we'll just ship him off to a Swiss boarding school.
I would like the sun back.