"Slowed"

When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, I was safe in Portugal. But my family and friends were in Ukraine. I had to survive the evacuation of my own children and search for them at the border for several days. I had to survive the death of my mother, who was buried by strangers. I survived the death of my father in my arms, the death of four close friends and the destruction of the city in which I grew up ... And all this - in one year.
In order to stay sane and continue to be effective, I needed to slow down my own thoughts while still retaining the ability to feel. And I started shooting this series of landscapes with an old Rolleiflex medium format camera and developing the film at home, in the kitchen. Walks along the deserted Portuguese coast and long exposures, sometimes for several minutes, stopped subjective time and returned a sense of control to the exhausted brain. The internal spring of tension unclenched, finding a way out in the choice of angle and theme of the next frame. And only one camera, one film, one focal length and a square frame, like the very restrictions in society that brought this series to life. It became a personal therapy, an exploration of one's own boundaries. The surrounding world stopped for a few seconds, and as a result, it changed, highlighting the main thing. The same thing happened in my head.
Sometimes loved ones appear in the frame, reminding us that life goes on
The war continues, I continue to shoot this series.