Hidden Emotions
2020
This project was a chance to tell a story, this time my own, and to help others, and myself, understand the experience of being in this COVID-19 ́s lockdown by yourself.
Everybody has their struggles and their moments of despair.
Letting people see the hidden emotions that you have, letting yourself be vulnerable, isn't something that we're used to. With this work, I wanted to show people that it is normal to feel sad, especially in this situation that we are in. It doesn't mean that you are weak. You don't need to be happy all the time. Everybody has their struggles and their moments of despair. Feelings of confinement (the loneliness that goes with it) , challenging your mental health, your limits, your resilience is not something we should be ashamed of. What we should ask ourselves is how long we are going to let ourselves immersed in that sadness, and how we are going to fight to not let this be all we are.
Due to the current situation, the lack of equipment and the fact that living in halls doesn't have a lot of room to explore, I really had to step up my game and think about non-obvious ways to tell my story. Because of that, I decided to experiment working with shadows, contrasting light and darkness, and really think about composition. I spent days looking at the lights that surrounded me, which ended up being a great exercise. In fact, most of these photos were shot only with natural light.
This whole project was not easy, and sometimes I had to start again in a different way so I could continue working on it. Nevertheless, I was able to create a narrative, arranging the photographs in pairs (each set having its own visual story), and giving people the chance to see through my eyes what I experienced. So they could feel that they were in that room with me, going through the same challenges that I was going through.