Eyes take over when we are running out of courage to express verbally our feellings. The playwright William Shakespeare once said that “words are full of falsehood or art; the eyes are the language of the heart.” This photographic series started in 2018 when I realized that, in front of my lens, some people accepted to surrender their emotions, declaring their passions, telling their secrets, and describing their dreams. Their eyes became their interpreters, and my camera quickly became a confessional, a recipient of silent stories. The fact is that, from an early age, we are trained to hide who we are and what we feel. We are, in short, the projections of others' expectations. But our eyes are hardly corrupted. Our eyes are the abode of our truth. Our eyes are the mirror, the faithful reflection of what we have always been. Our eyes witness our struggles, victories, and defeats.

OUR EYES ARE

THE WINDOW

TO OUR SOUL

The Resilient Eyes, Havana - Cuba, 2019

The Proud Eyes, Chicago - USA 2019

The Persevering Eyes, Havana - Cuba 2019

My Father’s Eyes, Belo Horizonte - Brazil, 2018

The Tender Eyes, Havana - Cuba 2019

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The Strong Eyes, Gouveia - Brazil, 2018

The Loving Eyes, Belo Horizonte - Brazil, 2018

The Waiting Eyes, Gouveia - Brazil, 2019

The Rich Eyes, Mundo Nuevo - Colombia, 2019

The eyes that are exactly what they want to be, Chicago - USA, 2019

The Free Eyes, Chicago - USA, 2019

The Passionate Eyes, Belo Horizonte - Brazil, 2018

The stories behind the series

  • Our eyes are the windows to our soul

    We laugh, cry, and love through our eyes. Excellent spokespersons, our eyes are honest as they tell us the latest developments about the brutal war that takes place every single day inside our fragile bodies. A silent war.

  • My father's eyes

    I don't know if you know, but when I was a kid, my eyes used to spend many hours at night looking out my bedroom window at the street in hopes of meeting your eyes again. Meanwhile, I used to keep an eye on passing cars, their circular headlights illuminating the darkness of the street and the darkness of my life as well.

  • Gisela

    Gisela Castilho, this black lady who radiates strength in her eyes, was born in Cuba, works as an administrative assistant at a school in Havana, and lives every day the cowardly reality imposed by the US embargo and the inability of local politics to find alternatives capable of guaranteeing a more dignified life for Cubans. Gisela is the manifestation of resilience.