Story: She was born with an intense light on her inside, serene but curious, affable yet intense, who eagerly sought out the experiences of the world./

All too quickly, she realized that we all inhabit a fragile vehicle, easily filled with fear, trauma, worries, gradually removing the sparkle from the child’s eyes that she once was./

She grew up, changed, and thus faced the world wearing her new adult outfit, controlling the unpredictable impulses of contentment, suffocating any desire to release emotions./

And so a dark lens was born inside her eyes, distorting the world she observed, a world that quickly merged into herself, contaminating ideas, provoking sighs and outbursts. She had learned to be a specter of distorted survival, oblivious of her body and clinging at all costs to an incomplete idea of “soul”, frightened, constantly visited by imagined enemies./

Monsters do exist outside indeed, but the darkest ones always come from within. They take on grotesque forms that expose discomfort and spread fear, trying to annihilate our potential to be free./

During the night, in which everything is amplified to infinity, where part of the universe peeks out shimmering from the top, multiple frightening shapes might appear, but so does the strength of that visceral sensation that tells you: “life is just a fleeting breath”. And so in the night is born the unforgettable contrast between the fear of what we do not control, and the comfort of knowing that we are part of something so expansively infinite and perfect./

She finally took a deep breath on that special night and, aided by her small magical lamp, brought the light of the stars into her, projecting it confidently out of her. That brooding creature in front of her was not a menacing giant wolf, but just a beautiful ancient tree. And so in that night something different happened, she faced the monsters, broke the molds, lit up her forgotten paths and thus finally returned to herself, to home, to Nature.../

| # Model: Adriana Santos (Forest Bathing Guide, Occupational Therapist, Psychedelic Assisted Therapist, Photographer)

| # Technique: long exposure, no photo-composite

| # Location: Alentejo Dark Sky International Reserve, Portugal

| # Image curated for exhibition at the Envisionary Art Lounge at Boom Festival 2022 (Portugal), based on the main theme "Anthropocene".

| # NFT Carbon footprint is 100% compensated through "Offsetra" and/or Give Back to Nature Reforestation Project

| # Physical large format print available upon request