For my friend Robert

Robert Triboli

Art has little to distinguish itself from religion. Fundamentally they are both acts of faith and therefore subject to their own uncertainties.

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart Rhett Neal for all the photos he sent me, and send a tender hug to Robert's family.

24 mars 2017 11:15
Hello Christian my name is Rhett Neal. I live in Sacramento California and was a good friend of Robert Triboli. I know he admired your site and friendship and I would like to send you some of his original photographs for you to have. After his death his family gave me all his printed works. I am giving them to his friends and admirers.
Sincerely,
Rhett Neal

My favorites. Robert was surprised of my enthusiasm before a huge smile.

In our Gold Rules, Robert added : "Seek and proclaim the light in others."

Indeed we were true friends during ten years. Even if I miss him, I'm not sad because he found and lived his vocation with passion, kindness, humility and love. I'm not sad because he loved and was loved in return. I'm not sad because I see him smiling from up above. I'm not sad because we have had the time to tell us these last beautiful words in 2016, full of smiles as usual :

- Robert, I love your Bus Graveyard series !! What about an exibition on uda ? If yes, pelierc@yahoo.fr - Be well my friend.
- Ha Ha! That would certainly be a new path for UDA. The junkyard cats were actually some additional images for a series on a bus boneyard. You always honor me so. Thanks my friend!
- I want this new path ! Thank you my dear dear Robert. I'm honored too and your so long friendship makes me so happy !

And UdA began to change. In a bus graveyard. Thank you Robert.

Anaïs, Art  Model
01-20-2017

"I cannot believe it. I was just about to message you, Robert, about my upcoming San Francisco trip because this trip is never complete without visiting you.

I wish I could have seen you before the end but at least I still have your kindness, your quirky smile, and your gentle voice remembered in my heart. You were so kind, caring, and generous.

I hope you knew how special you were to me and how much I cherished our friendship. May you be smiling from up above, next to the dear cat you loved the most. Until we meet again, Love Anaïs"

When I was a child I could feel light.

Not just the sensation of hot or cold, but light itself. I can't describe it to you, but I know I could feel it. When I was a child l would spend breezy summer afternoons lying under the vine-covered pergola in my grandfather’s vineyard. It was like being in a kaleidoscope and I could feel the millions of possible spectral permutations. It was rapture. With maturity I lost that facility to feel light. It was like learning the definition of awe and losing its meaning. It’s not that adults can’t feel awe ; they just don’t experience that knock the wind out of your guts awe that a child does.

Robert in the light

I was a serious young man. I was one of those people who thought that discovering the meaning of the universe was possible. 

I experimented with a lot of systems (Eastern, Western, Middle Earth) in search of the Eternal Answers. For a while I even thought the camera would allow me to differentiate between what Takahara calls “the dreams that are true from the truths that are only dreams”. The camera ended up being just another system. Art has little to distinguish itself from religion – fundamentally they are both acts of faith and therefore subject to their own uncertainties.

Robert and Lily

Older now, I concern myself less with answers. Instead, with a conviction that the universe is always presenting our senses with miraculous gifts, I have tried to foster receptivity and appreciation. I have tried to rediscover the awe and rapture I knew when I was a child.

Someday I would like to relive the feeling of light. I don’t know if it’s possible to find one’s way back, but photography has brought me closer than anything else.

The great majority of my images include people. While I don’t consciously seek out children I find them in many of my photographs. Perhaps, if I can’t get back there on my own, I can follow them as they instinctually find those paths that lead one up into the light.

Robert and Candace Nirvana

Thank you Robert. See you soon !