Sleepless

Sleepless is a photographic portrait series with biographical narratives about people who for some reason sleep very little. This project reflects on a surprising fact, that such everyday things as sleeping and dreams are still much of a mystery. From a scientific point of view, it's not really known what the benefits of sleep are for our metabolism and what are the consequences of its lack. From a cultural point of view, it's interesting to look at how the act of sleeping is understood and at the very idea of insomnia, because it leads us to observe how a culture or society relates to the notion of time and its control, night and day, light and darkness, privacy, safety and surveillance, consciousness and oblivion, the notion of health and the definition of pathologies.

The project was sparked by my curiosity to know how people live with sleeplessness. I was interested in looking at lack of sleep as a phenomenon, without limiting it to a specific reason. I interviewed the participants first and together we decided a place where I would photograph them in relation to their own particular story. During the photographic sessions I asked them to do some kind of relaxation exercises or some meditation.

Sleepless is the first part of a trilogy that aims to question what it is to be human, by exploring issues of subjectivity in relation to health and disease, 'lack' as a corporeal condition and the imaginary around the body and its control. The second project, No Ma, is about women who are not mothers and are certain they will never be; and the third, Trans, is about people who have had an organ transplant and how this experience may have an impact on their sense of identity. One of the key features of this trilogy is to visually explore aspects of the human condition that are not visible.