My favorite is your working fountain! You shocked me killing Cinderella and destroying her royal coach. Then a photographer on the death scene? You throw a dagger into my profession of teaching photography! Snow White on the throne without Dopey..shocking!!! Christmas is a celebration of life and birth, not death!! You are always full of surprises, but your skills are off the charts!😮😢
Hi Robin, I firmly believe that teaching photography and putting into practice what you have learned about photography are two aspects that should be kept absolutely separate. When ethics are involved, it is not easy to distinguish right from wrong. Photography has been in close contact with death since its inception. John Tackett in 1892 in Kansas photographed the deceased bodies of the Dalton gang members; the execution immortalized by a photo of Eddie Adams in the streets of Saigon in 1968; Kevin Carter who in Sudan in 1993 photographed the lifeless body of a little girl while a vulture can be seen approaching in the background, and in 2024 Mustafa Hassona and his heartbreaking photos from the Middle East. You are absolutely right when you say that Christmas is the celebration of life and birth but this means voluntarily excluding from mind and eyes the other 50% of the human essence. Birth, life and death have coexisted simultaneously since the time of creation. Every single moment there is someone who is born, someone who continues to live and someone who reaches the end of its life. Hiding one of these aspects under a blanket of snow seems at least hypocritical to me. At least for this 2024 season I have tried to be less so. Is the scene with Cinderella too tragic? Too cynical? Most likely yes. It is a simple reinterpretation as realistic as possible of what happened in 1997 in Paris in the tunnel under the Alma bridge where one of the most famous princesses in modern history met the same fate and in an identical situation. And the photographers were there then too. Cynicism is part of human nature. We erect monuments and statues to celebrate the lives and deeds of people who have contributed to the evolution of humanity, forgetting a fundamental point: they will also never stop reminding us that despite everything they still died naturally or tragically. In every square meter of our cities or villages coexist people who during the Christmas holidays have the desire and motivation to celebrate birth and life and others who have no intention or emotional drive or spirit or reason to do so. Please forgive me if I tried at least once to remove a little of the hypocrisy that I cannot deny having covered with kilos and kilos of fake snow during all the past seasons.
Now why didn't I think of Snow White? I always seem to overlook her. She does look scary. I like the jewelry store. It is currently in my village. And they are retiring it this year. So glad I got it. Oh, Silvio, that carriage scene...😢 😬 I do always try to fit more buildings in my village! I do love the fountain and extra little touches you added! The workimg fountain is beautiful!
Hello Rebecca, I'm sorry to have saddened and disappointed you with the Cinderella carriage scene. Once again it shows how bad a person I am in every single molecule. I love fairy tales but sometimes they are too sappy you risk nausea and diabetes you need to counterbalance with a pinch of the bitterness of life. Just to align ourselves minimally with the Christmas spirit and be less hypocritical. Life and death are indivisible Excluding one or the other is senseless. This season I tried to remove a minimum of hypocrisy from my Christmas Village. If I remember correctly hypocrisy is still a sin, not a deadly one but still a sin.
Its whatever you wish Silvio. If that brings you joy so be it. I think its a bit commical because Cinderella is not real anyway lol. I probably feel bad for the horses since horses can be found in the real world and they are too innocent to be harmed. I represent my city New York in my village but if I were to put the realism of the cold hearted crime filled streets, I would not be happy looking at my village. 😁 To me, my village is a fantasy of a happy peaceful place just to correspond to the moments in time where I was happy like visiting an amusement park. Few times I thought of putting a deer in the side of the road with some red paint because I see it way too often but did not because I don't want to be reminded of the unpleasantless although reality just want to escape in my "perfect" fake little village world.
Thank you for the coherence of your reasoning. Let me treasure this sentence of yours: "To me, my village is" It is the only concept on which all villagers should rely. Absolutely opposite from: "A christmas village should be" However, I understand and accept the criticisms that fall upon me. Departing from the path of the exaggerated representation of do-goodism, serenity and perfection that 95% of villagers practice to venture into the too dark side can shock. It is sad to say but still in 2025 if you don't conform to majority you are at least strange and strange people have been criticized since man has acquired a minimum of intellect..
@silvioallena Hi Silvio, I think the criticisms comes most likely from the "shock" of the dark side but not that you are strange. Maybe your village can be a Christmas/Halloween one like the movie Nightmare Before Christmas which is one of my favorite movies. So you can add scary scenes and bright scenes together throughout. The talent of Tim Burton is second to none movie was created decades ago yet still so famous today & the sale of its merchandise like figurines etc, so to you your village represents a mix of the dark side and bright side, that's all, nothing wrong with that and I don't think you are strange. Very talented at best. By the way, will you be hosting your villages around the world this year? If so, I like to submit my video. Thanks
Right now I'm red with embarrassment for your words of appreciation and for the comparison with Burton's works, with whom I had the opportunity to speak a few months ago when he was here for the inauguration of his traveling exhibition around the world "The World of Tim Burton". We have the Italian national museum of cinema here in Turin. You preceded me by a few hours: at 6 pm today CET (so in just over two hours) the Crazy Idea 2024 Edition video will be online with my request for your kind collaboration in allowing me to bring Christmas Villages from the World 2024 edition to life.
Oh Silvio So many dark twists this season. Your creativity is astounding and your ability to elicit such emotion with your scenes is second to none. The delusion of a Christmas utopia.... Destoyed The purity and kindness of Snow White.....Destroyed The happily ever after of Cinderella....destroyed Guessing that Dopey was just too stupid to live or maybe he is a court jester now? Why not place the throne section near the Cinderella devastation, so Snow Dark (no longer white) can gloat. I do think the clock tower that took out Cinderellas carriage should be larger for realism, in my opinion. Your crumbling brick wall around the robot scrap yard is perfect. But I still could see some weedy flowers near the little wind up girl (just for a touch of hope) After all, there has to be some hope in the darkness or all is lost. Your fountain looks beautiful. The ups and downs of you village this year has been a roller coaster ride of structured chaos! past, present and future Birth, toiling and death Good, bad and indifferent Black, white and gray Liquid, solid and vapor/mist You have captured it all!
Hello Susan, From now on you must call me The Destroyer. This season I simply tried to balance the excess of perfection and do-goodism with a minimum of the harsh reality that surrounds us every day. We always gladly remember the fairy tales heroes and gladly forget the horrible end that anti-heroes often meet. But we are and we will always be both heroes and anti-heroes. I think the only real dark point of the season is actually the fate assigned to Cinderella. The rest, let's say, is grey. I never said that the seventh dwarf was necessarily killed, he could obviously be but it could also very well be on a mission. Just above I talked about balance but up until now there is no trace of joy and celebration in my Christmas Village. This is undeniable. All of you are right. But I couldn't avoid some not evil, not dark, not deadly, not sad surprises for the final video at the end of the season. I deliberately left two spaces completely empty. In the plaza section and in the blue roofed houses section.
My favorite is your working fountain! You shocked me killing Cinderella and destroying her royal coach. Then a photographer on the death scene? You throw a dagger into my profession of teaching photography! Snow White on the throne without Dopey..shocking!!!
Christmas is a celebration of life and birth, not death!!
You are always full of surprises, but your skills are off the charts!😮😢
Hi Robin,
I firmly believe that teaching photography and putting into practice what you have learned about photography are two aspects that should be kept absolutely separate.
When ethics are involved, it is not easy to distinguish right from wrong.
Photography has been in close contact with death since its inception.
John Tackett in 1892 in Kansas photographed the deceased bodies of the Dalton gang members; the execution immortalized by a photo of Eddie Adams in the streets of Saigon in 1968; Kevin Carter who in Sudan in 1993 photographed the lifeless body of a little girl while a vulture can be seen approaching in the background, and in 2024 Mustafa Hassona and his heartbreaking photos from the Middle East.
You are absolutely right when you say that Christmas is the celebration of life and birth but this means voluntarily excluding from mind and eyes the other 50% of the human essence.
Birth, life and death have coexisted simultaneously since the time of creation. Every single moment there is someone who is born, someone who continues to live and someone who reaches the end of its life.
Hiding one of these aspects under a blanket of snow seems at least hypocritical to me.
At least for this 2024 season I have tried to be less so.
Is the scene with Cinderella too tragic?
Too cynical?
Most likely yes.
It is a simple reinterpretation as realistic as possible of what happened in 1997 in Paris in the tunnel under the Alma bridge where one of the most famous princesses in modern history met the same fate and in an identical situation.
And the photographers were there then too.
Cynicism is part of human nature.
We erect monuments and statues to celebrate the lives and deeds of people who have contributed to the evolution of humanity, forgetting a fundamental point: they will also never stop reminding us that despite everything they still died naturally or tragically.
In every square meter of our cities or villages coexist people who during the Christmas holidays have the desire and motivation to celebrate birth and life and others who have no intention or emotional drive or spirit or reason to do so.
Please forgive me if I tried at least once to remove a little of the hypocrisy that I cannot deny having covered with kilos and kilos of fake snow during all the past seasons.
Now why didn't I think of Snow White? I always seem to overlook her. She does look scary.
I like the jewelry store. It is currently in my village. And they are retiring it this year. So glad I got it.
Oh, Silvio, that carriage scene...😢 😬
I do always try to fit more buildings in my village!
I do love the fountain and extra little touches you added! The workimg fountain is beautiful!
Hello Rebecca,
I'm sorry to have saddened and disappointed you with the Cinderella carriage scene.
Once again it shows how bad a person I am in every single molecule.
I love fairy tales but sometimes they are too sappy you risk nausea and diabetes you need to counterbalance with a pinch of the bitterness of life.
Just to align ourselves minimally with the Christmas spirit and be less hypocritical.
Life and death are indivisible
Excluding one or the other is senseless.
This season I tried to remove a minimum of hypocrisy from my Christmas Village.
If I remember correctly hypocrisy is still a sin, not a deadly one but still a sin.
Its whatever you wish Silvio. If that brings you joy so be it. I think its a bit commical because Cinderella is not real anyway lol. I probably feel bad for the horses since horses can be found in the real world and they are too innocent to be harmed. I represent my city New York in my village but if I were to put the realism of the cold hearted crime filled streets, I would not be happy looking at my village. 😁 To me, my village is a fantasy of a happy peaceful place just to correspond to the moments in time where I was happy like visiting an amusement park. Few times I thought of putting a deer in the side of the road with some red paint because I see it way too often but did not because I don't want to be reminded of the unpleasantless although reality just want to escape in my "perfect" fake little village world.
Thank you for the coherence of your reasoning.
Let me treasure this sentence of yours:
"To me, my village is"
It is the only concept on which all villagers should rely.
Absolutely opposite from:
"A christmas village should be"
However, I understand and accept the criticisms that fall upon me.
Departing from the path of the exaggerated representation of do-goodism, serenity and perfection that 95% of villagers practice to venture into the too dark side can shock.
It is sad to say but still in 2025 if you don't conform to majority you are at least strange and strange people have been criticized since man has acquired a minimum of intellect..
@silvioallena Hi Silvio, I think the criticisms comes most likely from the "shock" of the dark side but not that you are strange. Maybe your village can be a Christmas/Halloween one like the movie Nightmare Before Christmas which is one of my favorite movies. So you can add scary scenes and bright scenes together throughout. The talent of Tim Burton is second to none movie was created decades ago yet still so famous today & the sale of its merchandise like figurines etc, so to you your village represents a mix of the dark side and bright side, that's all, nothing wrong with that and I don't think you are strange. Very talented at best. By the way, will you be hosting your villages around the world this year? If so, I like to submit my video. Thanks
Right now I'm red with embarrassment for your words of appreciation and for the comparison with Burton's works, with whom I had the opportunity to speak a few months ago when he was here for the inauguration of his traveling exhibition around the world "The World of Tim Burton".
We have the Italian national museum of cinema here in Turin.
You preceded me by a few hours:
at 6 pm today CET (so in just over two hours) the Crazy Idea 2024 Edition video will be online with my request for your kind collaboration in allowing me to bring Christmas Villages from the World 2024 edition to life.
Oh Silvio
So many dark twists this season. Your creativity is astounding and your ability to elicit such emotion with your scenes is second to none.
The delusion of a Christmas utopia.... Destoyed
The purity and kindness of Snow White.....Destroyed
The happily ever after of Cinderella....destroyed
Guessing that Dopey was just too stupid to live or maybe he is a court jester now?
Why not place the throne section near the Cinderella devastation, so Snow Dark (no longer white) can gloat.
I do think the clock tower that took out Cinderellas carriage should be larger for realism, in my opinion.
Your crumbling brick wall around the robot scrap yard is perfect. But I still could see some weedy flowers near the little wind up girl (just for a touch of hope) After all, there has to be some hope in the darkness or all is lost.
Your fountain looks beautiful.
The ups and downs of you village this year has been a roller coaster ride of structured chaos!
past, present and future
Birth, toiling and death
Good, bad and indifferent
Black, white and gray
Liquid, solid and vapor/mist
You have captured it all!
Hello Susan,
From now on you must call me The Destroyer.
This season I simply tried to balance the excess of perfection and do-goodism with a minimum of the harsh reality that surrounds us every day.
We always gladly remember the fairy tales heroes and gladly forget the horrible end that anti-heroes often meet.
But we are and we will always be both heroes and anti-heroes.
I think the only real dark point of the season is actually the fate assigned to Cinderella.
The rest, let's say, is grey.
I never said that the seventh dwarf was necessarily killed, he could obviously be but it could also very well be on a mission.
Just above I talked about balance but up until now there is no trace of joy and celebration in my Christmas Village.
This is undeniable.
All of you are right.
But I couldn't avoid some not evil, not dark, not deadly, not sad surprises for the final video at the end of the season.
I deliberately left two spaces completely empty.
In the plaza section and in the blue roofed houses section.