This time of year is one in which we can dedicate ourselves to our loved ones and foster connections and relationships that we often take for granted or forget to nurture. We ve selected ten photographs representing various manifestations of the relationships we celebrate.
We asked the artists to answer the question: ‘When do you feel connected to others?’. They shared their intimate thoughts with us.
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“I feel connected to others when I operate from my core, and every so often it echoes.”
"We seek connections through a deep-seated yearning to create or belong to loving and nurturing environments. As children grow, this profound longing extends beyond the family unit, becoming a journey inherent to our humanity. Discovering wholeness occurs as we recognize our innate oneness and sameness. Ultimately, every person pursues the same goals – to love, be loved, and lead a purpose-filled life."
“I am both an introvert and an extrovert. I used to have a lot of trouble connecting with others. For a long time I studied myself and observed life. The good and bad aspects of anyone, this helps me understand their trauma in their context. And I learned how to connect with people. The change of seasons will also affect me, affecting the emotions we experience. I like summer because of lots of sunshine but winter is a great hope, Hope for love, happiness and healing for everyone.”\
“I think I feel more in sync with people I can share silence comfortably with. No words, just being.”
“As a photographer I have the privilege to connect with people through my process. In the moment of photographing them, they become vulnerable, opening themselves to me, and connecting in a genuine level.”
"I feel connected with others when I am surrounded by people with whom you can enjoy who you really are. And you can show yourself without limits. And at the same time you see others enjoying themselves. It s a moment of true connection. It goes beyond having common hobbies or being able to talk about certain topics.
I connect deeply with my friends, my girlfriend, my sister.... But also with people I don t even know, through a work of theirs. It happens especially with images, films and music. When you see these works and you connect directly with the person behind them, it s a very emotional moment.
I would like people to feel connected to me through my work."
“I feel connected to others at moments when I know that I don t need to explain myself. Connections to me are fostered by trust and acceptance. It is when we are free to be vulnerable, genuine and accountable to each other.”
“Connection is a powerful word, to me, inseparable from the action of creation. I feel deeply connected to others when I photograph people, when I dive into the depths of imagination, and when I share ideas with others. In those moments when our boundaries blur, an emotional harmony is created, allowing you to truly feel the other one.”
"I feel connected through others, through words, vibrations, scents, gestures, a gaze, a voice, an action, a gathering. Connection, for me, is as much sensory as it is a matter of values, representing our humanity in its entirety, in both discourse and action.
In a beautifully ambivalent yet icy state, it takes very little to connect, and one must move mountains, persist in reaching for the moon, to be seen, and heard, to reconnect with others."
“I feel connected to others when we meet each other in a state of radical acceptance - where we each feel safe to be seen in our wholeness devoid of judgement and pretence, safe to both sit in silence or to be brought to tears. When we see ourselves reflected in one another despite vast differences, finding uncanny similarities in our imperfect humanness. When we simply spend the time together - honest, unhurried time - enough to find a shared joy or pain. When we’re sharing food, music, stories and late night revelations. When we’re skin to skin with our young, when we’re skin to skin with our old. When we accept that we’re all interconnected in millions of mystical and mundane ways, when we allow our vulnerability to lead and our open-hearted actions and innate care for one another to follow. ”
