WOMEN OF ARTS & CULTURE IN PICTURES
Photos: Yafa Saror, a.k.a. "The Girl from Sinai", "The Gypsy Queen of Tribeca". Photos credits: Renate Aller.
Yaffa
is making waves in New York City. She calls herself the "Girl from Sinai". She
wants you to remember what she told everybody: "I am Jewish, but not Israeli.
I am from Sinai." But, the neighbors and residents in Tribeca call her
something else. Something like "The Gypsy Queen of Tribeca." This woman is
unquestionably one of the most fascinating women in New York City. She owns
and manage her own restaurant, which of course is named after her "YAFFA
RESTAURANT". And at that restaurant-cafe trottoir--bar everything goes;
politics, buzzes, gossips, breaking news, adventures and unbelievable stories
you hear from the patrons. Count 7 of Yaffa's clients and 8 of them are
foreigners. And each one of them has at least 8 different story versions of
their life. Now, mix all this delightful mambo-jumbo stuff with the succulent
dessert, the magnificent hospitality service, the Ali Baba unbelievable
adventures and tales of Queen Yaffa, and you get the most delicious
controversies menu and synchronized Babel of Tower mounted on Middle Eastern
dishes dashed by Queen Yaffa. The Queen has become the buzzy buz of New York.
Yaffa does not like it! But, she keeps asking when, where and how many times people are buzzing about her. I was one of those who have been questioned by the Queen. She forgot, I was the first to write a piece on her. I am fascinated by this delightful, bright, and magnificently mad woman. Do you want to add some "intellectual spices" to your life, and have fun? Wear your jeans full of holes, dress it up with a Versace jacket and rush to Yaffa Restaurant. And if you are lucky, you might be introduced to the Queen herself, the new toast and talk of the town. Other projects she is working on are the creation of an art gallery for the half sane and a flashy-dashy fashion show like the one you see above.
Lao Tzu was the first to say "One image is worth one thousand words." And so Did Marco Polo and Vasco de Gamma after having discovered unknown parts of the world. And to depict the unpleasant character of Popes, Michelangelo and Raphael froze their portraits in illustrations and pictures so future centuries and generation will remember those Papal characters. We see and understand our universe through photographs. Sure, we feel the cosmos and its parallel world with our hearts and imagination but, only photographs capture the moment, the message, the hidden, the revealed, the damned, the sacred, the holly and the forbidden. In this special issue on world's arts and culture, we tried to illustrate and depict our "current" world with photos which in my opinion are the the truthful messenger, voice and echo of our societies around the globe. Some photographs are hilarious while others are melodramatic. Some are refreshing while many others are alarming. Imagine the world without poetry, music, arts, dance, sculpture, happy children playing and dancing on the top of the hills and wild rose blooming in the valley. Imagine the world without photographs to capture those precious moments in our lives and thoughts which come to life through the lenses of talented, artistic, outrageous and madly delightful photographers. We toured the world and captured it for you on photos. Enjoy the show, and remember two things in your life. Every time you give from your heart, you grow one inch taller. And every time you take a good dammed picture, you add memories, dear souvenirs, ultra dimensions, meaning and perhaps, just perhaps, a few more colors and life to the the album of our world, yours and mine...
Photos from left to right: Susan Egan and Lisa Richards in Susan Egan's Cabaret dressing room/ bathroom on Broadway in 2003! (Copyright 2004 Lisa Richard). Photo caption: "I love this picture. We were taking publicity shots for the show Nunsense, and I posed like this as a goof. You should have seen the faces of the people driving by as they spotted this wine-drinking, smoking, mechanic nun. You can't see it in the photo, but my nails are painted bright red, too." Lisa Richard.
Photos from left to right: A model wears a garment from Australian designer Lisa Ho at the start of Sydney's fashion week. Photo: Reuters.. Winner Tamera Marie Szijarto is crowned Miss Philippines 2004 in Manila. Szijarto will also compete for Miss Earth in Manila later this year. Photo: Reuters.
Photos #1 & #2: Diva Caroline Nin, the millennium's perfect new face of a French cabaret diva.
Photos from left to right: A model presents an embroidered and printed yellow and red evening gown with red leather bolero designed by French fashion designer Julien Fournie for Torrente's Spring/Summer 2004 haute couture fashion collection in Paris.......An Iraqi woman waves from a bus carrying the first group of Iraqi Muslims, en route to the annual Haj pilgrimage, as it leaves a depot in Baghdad
Photos from left to right: Veiled Iraqi women take part in a protest against a French bill forbidding conspicuous religious signs in public schools, including Muslim hijab, or veils and scarves, during a demonstration near the French interest section in Baghdad Photo: AFP.......Jennifer Stewart - also known as Living Liberty - touches up her make-up as she braves the cold in Times Square after taping an advertisement to promote tourism for the Statue of Liberty, Photo: AFP.
A model presents an outfit by British designer Julien Macdonald during the autumn/winter 2004-2005 collections presentation at the ex-Saatchi gallery in London, Photo: AFP. An Afghan woman Rabya wears a burqa as she shows her voter registration card in Kabul, Afghanistan , Photo: AFP.
A model presents a creation by British designer John Galliano for Christian Dior during the presentation of Autumn/Winter 2004-05 collections at the Paris Fashion Week, Photo: AFP. A model presents a creation by French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier as part of the Spring/Summer 2004 Haute Couture week in Paris, Photo: AFP.