Year

2024

Location

Porto, Portugal

Context

“And now, what do I do?”

“Whatever you want.”

“What do you mean? Aren’t you going to direct me?”

“No, I’m going to stay here in silence.”

This is a real dialogue, one that happened as many times as there were people entering the studio to be photographed. The invitation lacked any clarity, and that was by design. It was simply an invitation for a photo session.

My initial hypothesis was that people wouldn’t know what to do with this excess of freedom. The results exceeded my expectations: freedom oppressed them. Without a plan, without a guide, and placed in an environment where they had absolute control over what they could do, they revealed a common vulnerability—that total freedom can bring profound confusion.

There are so many directions, so many paths, so many options.

It doesn’t matter which one you choose; what matters is choosing one and moving forward. No option is real until it becomes concrete. Each subject followed their own course during the photo session and, by the end, felt they had found their own destination. Not one of many possible destinations—only the one that had been chosen.

Nowhere to Go