EXISTCITEMENT

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Christian

Christian and I have been friends for a couple of years by now. He used to own “Phoebe’s” my favorite coffee shop in Williamsburg. One day we started talking while I had breakfast there and we have been friends ever since. Christian is a musician. Because his dream always had been to own a place where musicians could perform he bough the coffee shop. People were performing but it was tough to make money so unfortunately (for me!) he sold the place a couple of years ago.

It took a while for us to get together to do the interview and picture but it took even longer for me to post it. We met in May.

Christian and his wonderful girlfriend Stacy invited me over that night and after a fantastic dinner and him playing some songs on the guitar he gave me his interview. Happiness combined with simplicity is what he strives for in life.

It was a great last (at least for the moment) interview in NYC and in the United States. Life took a new turn for me and I don’t know if I will continue this project or not but either way it was a great opportunity to make wonderful new friends and to hang out with many old ones.

A big thank you to everybody who participated and who visited the blog and listened to the stories! My hope is that this project inspired people to think more about why we are here and what this whole experience called life is all about.  

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Please check out Christian's meaning of life.

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Check out Faith's take on the meaning of life.

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Faith Bartruff

Faith just sold all she owned and moved with only a few suitcases from LA to the Big Apple.

She had a successful career as a fashion designer creating outfits for Beyonce and Nicki Minaj that left her very unfulfilled. One day she realized that nothing she ever had accomplished had ever given her any fulfillment. She came to a breaking point.

She says she was crying out to God to change her life, to take away whatever does not make her happy and to create a life that is not only fulfilling to her but would also help others to find fulfillment.

Within seconds her life started to change …..

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Please check out Sarit's meaning of her life.

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Sarit Chalamish

I have been friends with Sarit for a few years by now. She used to work with artists and I met her taking pictures at a friends art opening who she worked with. She later on represented my fine art work.

Sarit is one of these people that is able to juggle living in NYC, work, being married and being the mother of three beautiful girls.

She is originally from Israel and talks in her interview about her meaning of life being first and foremost a mother. She says that she is contemporary in her day to day life but at the same time also very conservative. Being Jewish she mentions how important her faith is to her and talks about symbols in Jewish tradition like the separation of the mundane and the holy by celebrating the Sabbath.

She says that her parents gave her an outlook on life that there is a force or power that overseas things and that knowing that this force exist makes her feel that things will be alright and that she hopes to pass on this viewpoint to her children.

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Francheska's take on the meaning of life.

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Francheska Lopez

I’ve known Francheska for a couple of years by now. She is a fantastic contemporary modern dancer that has helped me with other projects in the past. She was part of a series of dance photographs I shot last year and her image is at the moment the opening photograph of my website.

Self judgement is something that she, a lot of dancers and in some way or form we all are facing but for her it completely disappears when she is on stage dancing. She calls it her truest form and longs for feeling that way all the time.

Francheska thinks that happiness is the meaning of her life and that people often forget that they are not happy but settling for the what they have. She talks about the struggle to live in New York City and that people have to work jobs they don’t like (shit end jobs :-)) to make ends meet but do so to live in a city where there is more opportunity while they forget that they could be happier.

She concludes by saying that whatever has created this existence is not a terror, is not scary or negative. Having a life is beautiful and that she guarantees that whatever is beyond this got to be beautiful.  

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Eva's take on the meaning of her life.

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Eva Mueller

“Hello?” (me) “Hi this is Eva can I please talk to Chris?” “Chis is not here he went to Germany for Christmas”. (me) “Too bad I wanted to ask him if I could use his rooftop for a photo shoot”. “Well, I’m renting the place from him and you can use the roof if you want” (me) “That’s great, thank you so much! What do you want for that?” “No worries I’m here anyway but do you need an assistant?” (me)

It is December 1996. I had moved to New York a month before and I just scored my first photo assisting job in the city. Eva Mueller was on the other end of the line and even though she had already booked an assistant for this Job I would be her assistant on her next assignment. It ended up being a three day low budget shoot for the fashion designer Anna Sui. I made $ 80.00 per day but did so with a smile knowing that I was living my dream.

Eva and I have been friends ever since.

Many things have changed since then including my dreams but I wonder if I would still be living in this city had I not picked up the phone that day.

She is a fantastic photographer. Please check out her website here.

In her interview she talks about one of the latest conceptual projects she has been working on and that the meaning of her life is to be present and aware in each moment.

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Please check out Ming's take on the meaning of his life.

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Ming Ooi

I met Ming in 1999 when we both worked at the Arnell Group, an advertising agency in New York City and we have been friends ever since.

He is now on his third career in mobile applications after been working in advertising and consumer goods. Ming has been married to his wife Kathy for five years, I attended the wedding and have been recovering from the festivities ever since. 

His mobile app “tapTrak” is a micro journaling software that you can use to record anything that comes to mind be it how often you went to the gym, how you are doing with your meditation practice to when and how much money you withdraw from the bank. There is also a medical version called tapTrak med. Please check out tapTrak’s website here and don’t forget to download the app for free on the app store.

Ming did always strike me as somebody who knew what he wanted and who would get it. It was interesting to find out during the interview that even for him his goals in life have shifted in recent years.

One of the things that are for sure though is that he loves his dog Louie that he recently adopted. This picture of Ming and Louie was taken at his apartment in Brooklyn Dumbo.

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Jim's take on the meaning of life.

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James Leonard

I’ve known Jim for about 8 or 9 years and did visit him and my roommate Nieves on my way back from New Mexico on their farm close to Harrisburg Pennsylvania.

He is a folk artist that creates detailed elaborate figural copper wind machines that can even been seen at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

I call Jim “The man who knows everything” because he pretty much has an answer to any question you ask him as long as it is not about computers. He is convinced that his ability to design and invent things is related to his dyslexia a condition famous inventors like Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Alexander Graham Bell also suffered from.

And as his famous colleagues he is constantly coming up with new inventions in the hope to make this world a better place and I’m convinced that one day one of them will change the world we live in.    

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Please check out Jim's take on the meaning of life.

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Jim Spain

Jim spends one night per week at the Super 8 motel in Lebanon Missouri getting some sleep on a route he drives with his truck.

He was a gunner on a helicopter in Vietnam but did not want to talk about his experiences.

Jim loves the horses he owns and he is driving his truck to support them.

He is not a man of many words but many words are often not needed.

The meaning of his life is to go along with the flow, have a good time and enjoy it because you just got it once and you may just enjoy it the first time since you don’t get a second chance.

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Please check out Nellie's take on the meaning of life.