Star in I can see you art project

‘A strong woman, loyal, trustworthy and a lot of guts! An entrepreneurial spirit with beauty from the in and outside.

I think this is a woman that went through a lot, but came out stronger because of it. Knows herself, won’t let others misguide her. Takes care, walks through fire for family and friends.

Strong, open. Powerful and vulnerable, closed, humor, has surprises. Guts and courage. Human and.. what cannot be said/ what stays unspoken…

Open, uncomplicated/straightforward. With vision. Lovable, understanding, balanced and strong, Loves making contact with others which come easily to her. Brings people together. Non judgmental, social.’

To feel seen and heard is important to every human being. When we don’t feel seen it hurts, it makes us cover up our beauty and it makes us hide from the world in all different kinds of ways. Depression, violence, fighting for attention, terrorism, sadness, loneliness, chronic illness, addictions and over achieving for example can be ways to express the pain. We constantly need to prove the world and ourselves that we are worth something. All from a wounded place. But what if you are seen, and what if others do see your beauty?

This is the project; I make an image of individuals I barely know and talk to them about their lives. In a way this part is like a soul story. Then I print the portrait and ask other people I encounter to look at the photograph of this person and ask them to tell me what they see in this human being they have never met before. The beauty lies in the layering by bringing up questions about shadows, mirroring, who do the viewers see, what is my role as a photographer and how do I influence the way I see and therefor portrait a person. So what the viewer sees and feels, is that their, my, or the model’s interpretation or feeling? Let’s investigate.

It’s a project about beauty and awareness and it turned out to be a project about judgement as well. We all ‘judge’ people we meet by the way they look or the first feeling we get when we see the other. Or maybe by the group they belong to, or their profile pic. Is that a wrong thing? Or is it survival instinct? Interesting questions! And what if we really take a bit of time to look somebody in the eye and talk to them? I read somewhere that it is not possible to not like someone after hearing their story. But that is another project!

You can look more people in the eye at I can See You.