This series of photographs began in 2023, as part of a broader exploration of the body, scars, and death. Alongside this work, I gradually began making portraits.
I was going through a particular period in my life, forced into convalescence and receiving regular visits from friends and loved ones. I began asking them to pose for me. The ritual was almost always the same: a cup of tea or coffee, long conversations, and, towards the end, the camera. I made many portraits, which I later gave to those who appeared in them.
With each development came a discovery. Portrait after portrait, I began to notice things I had not seen before: a gesture, an expression, a vulnerability, a presence. Each image seemed to reveal something that had remained hidden.
The portraits were presented under a veil of tracing paper. The viewer had to decide whether to lift it and reveal each person. I chose to present the images this way because every portrait was made within a space of intimacy, a moment of encounter, trust, and exchange. The veil preserves something of that intimacy while placing the act of looking in the hands of the viewer. To reveal the portrait becomes a choice: an invitation to cross a boundary, but also an acknowledgment that seeing is never entirely innocent.
I began to wonder what it really means to see. How easy it is to look without truly seeing. And how often things unfold before our eyes unnoticed until a photograph suddenly makes them visible.
Patricia Abarca de la Fuente 