There’s solitude we choose and there’s solitude we don’t, the second one hurts. Especially when we see ourselves pushed to that situation by the circumstances, people we love or, like in this photograph, what should be our caretakers… Besides this analogy between this horse, left under the rain and tied with a short leash that I had the discomfort to photograph, and we humans, what really bothered me was to think how this horse should feel. Have you heard about learned helplessness? Imagine living a life resigned believing there’s nothing you can do to change your situation… At least, we have, oftentimes although it’s hard, the ability to get over situations, hard circumstances and emotions, even learn valuable lessons, but in this world we live in where animals are seen as if they were here to serve us, it leaves not too many options to this horse. I wanted to create a more loving, and actually realistic, image of how they should be perceived if they lived in a world where human beings were more connected to our emotions, empathy and compassion. It’s crazy to think that being the most evolved living being we don’t often use that evolution for the good. We still need to learn so much about love.
The philosopher Seneca said “loneliness is not being alone, but being empty” and that’s something I realized very young. Contrary to what most of us are taught, I believe being alone can be a good thing, and this notion is the basis for Solitude, which aims to explore feelings of lonesomeness in tandem with spiritual connections within the natural world.
Each of these works function as a self-portrait, manifested as an animal, an atmosphere, and visual/emotional phrase, and sometimes simply myself. In each work I explore a moment of profound experience, scenes of wonder that seek to savor quiet moments of unexpected encounters.
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