The Burden of Time

“What is to give light must endure burning”Viktor E. Frankl

Through these photographs, I have tried to find in others traces of my own childhood: touched by absence, loneliness, and indifference. I have looked for children and adolescents whose stories and relations are somehow close to me. When I started to portray them, I could see nothing; neither could they. We met in complete darkness.

These images have been worked with long exposures, between 30 seconds and 3 minutes. They are like small fragments of a video condensed in only one image.

During the session, the burden of time emerges in the perceptible discomfort of their breathing. It becomes visible in their flickering eyes; thus, their true expressions are revealed far beyond what we can see. Lying half-naked, they somehow experience fear and helplessness. And yet, or perhaps because of this, they surrender with confidence to their portrait.