The article and interview appeared in the Rheinpfalz, the local regional newspaper on Saturday, February 10th. 2018. The original article was written in German. This translation catches the spirit of the writer very well. The newspaper has a circulation and readership of one quarter of  a million readers.

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The British photographer Robin Simons, who lives in Deidesheim, is not a professional photographer, but his pictures certainly touch everyone who sees them. From next week on, the 60-year-old will be showing his fascinating photos of Ireland's wild beauty in Neustadt Monastery and will be speaking about life as a journey accompanying the exhibition, which led him to climb 150 of the highest mountains on the Green Island - with Parkinson's disease as his constant companion.

 

As a young man on a road trip through the USA, Simons met a photographer who worked for ABC. He got Simons enthusiastic about photography and gave him his first camera. Although he actually took photographs for some time in order to earn money, he never wanted to become a professional and began studying politics and philosophy in England. But his life took a new turn when his sister fell ill with cancer. He took care of her and trained as a social worker after her death. He then worked for 16 years as a probation officer for serious criminals and a therapist for drug addicts before noticing the first symptoms of Parkinson's at the end of 1997. The doctors only confirmed this early outbreak four years later, when he was only 45 years old. The great psychological strain in his job had so intensified the symptoms of the disease that he had to take early retirement, he reports.

 

When the doctor explained to him that the disease could worsen so rapidly that he might not reach the age of 50, he decided to give his life a new direction, Robin Simons looks back on this time today. From then on, "Carpe diem" applied to him - seize the day. He moved to Trinidad, using his money to live in a 300-people village in the rainforest in the north of the island, in complete harmony with nature, without luxury and as the only white man. He remembers that he had really blossomed there, although self-sufficiency was physically very exhausting. It was also difficult to get the necessary medicines. After four and a half years "in paradise", as he says, he needed more intensive medical care, went back to England and experienced a kind of culture shock: "Life in the city was too much stress for me," he says, "that's why I went to Ireland. There he hoped to be able to live in harmony with nature again. Previously, on the advice of the doctors, he had been supplied with an Apo-morphine pump, with which he could counteract his temporary inability to move by means of an adjustable flow of medication.

 

His stay in Ireland brought him back to physical and psychological balance for eight years. "For the second time I had found a paradise, but it was colder and it rained more often," he laughs. He settled in Connemara on the west coast. There he was magically drawn to the so-called "Pilgrim's Mountain", the Croagh Patrick, 764 meters high and a pilgrimage site in honour of St. Patrick. It was the first mountain to be climbed by Simons, but it was to be followed by 149 more in the years to come, as confirmed by a certificate from the Irish Hiking Association. Ireland thus became his spiritual home and has remained so to this day.

 

Now Simons had again enough leisure to photograph the fascinating landscape with its changing moods and views on his hikes, always with a handy small camera, which did not burden him further. "At the Atlantic the clouds move on fast, and when the sun shines, one rainbow follows the other" he enthuses, "I don't need any Photoshop editing, everything is real nature", and shows a photo with a wonderfully pronounced rainbow. The wide open spaces that Oscar Wilde called "wild beauty" touched him. Always keeping an eye on nature, he took impressive pictures, for example of a wild white Connemara pony. "I was on the edge of a peat bog area when it suddenly stood in front of me. It literally posited itself and waited until I had made my shot, then it disappeared again," he remembers. Special root formations of the trees also appealed to his photographic eye. On one of his expeditions, a rock formation inspired him to write his poem "John O`Donohue`s Rock". O`Donohue was an Irish philosopher and writer who dealt with Celtic wisdom.

 

For Robin Simons it was this very nature that he found beneficial and balancing for his health. He had learned to listen to his body and to deal with his illness, to accept it and thus find his way back into mental equilibrium. Only then was it possible for him to climb 150 peaks, 90 of them alone. "There are several easy, but also 14 over 900 meters, which he climbed in company. Since Simons lived in the region, he could always wait for good weather. "The light is then very special," he says. His photographs prove it.

 

During his time in Ireland, he also met his German wife Annette when she was visiting a friend there. Since medication was no longer sufficient after eight years, he decided to take the last possible step, which would allow him to continue his life with his chronic illness without having to sit in a wheelchair. At the University Hospital in Tübingen, he underwent a neurosurgical intervention in the brain, deep brain stimulation (DBS), which was successful.

 

However, his fate put him to the test again when he had a serious accident during rehabilitation and had to undergo surgery again. This time it was a question of restoring his face, which had been seriously injured by the fall. "A cat has seven lives, they say in Germany, in Ireland it has nine, so I prefer this version", says Simons with his typical English humour. Since 2014 he has been living with his wife in Deidesheim. There he is "Hausmann" as he explains with a smile. Every day he walks for two hours with the Doberman male Murphy, does yoga and light weight training. He has already exhibited his photographs several times. The visitors always asked him for travel tips or told him about their own trips to Ireland.

 

Despite all the adversities, he loves life and has learned to grow through personal challenges through his chronic illness. "Our bodies are intelligent. Listen to your body. Develop the best possible relationship with him and yourself. Do not withdraw from life and from yourself. Do things that you can enjoy and that give you joy," he sums up his attitude to life. He will also talk about this in his lecture at Neustadt Monastery, which he will give in English and which will be translated by his wife.

 

The Exhibition

The exhibition "Imagining Ireland - Ireland's Wild Beauty" will open on Thursday 15 February at Neustadt Monastery, Waldstrasse 145, and will run until 24 March. Opening hours: Mondays to Fridays 9-18, Saturdays 9-16, Sundays 9-12. The lecture will take place there on Thursday, 22 March, at 19 hrs. Admission is free.

 

 

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