Can I be your eyes?
You said yes and chose to share your story with me—the story of a place you long to see again, to hear again, to live again, to rediscover.
I set out for that place, trying to see it through your eyes.
Your story guided me, and—perhaps—I found something of my own along the way.
I tried to take you back to where you had been absent for so long.
I sought to capture images you could keep, filled with the emotions you shared with me.
Photographs in this project are dedicated to those who ask Khonsu, to preserve memories. They hold not only the sensitivity of the photographer, but also the personal perspective of another – the experiences of those who can no longer return to the places where they were born or raised.
These places are squares, homes, paths, streets, natural landscapes, cities, spaces that have changed over time, or stayed the same.
Places that matter only to those who wish to see them again today,
even just once more, despite the passage of time.
They are not places of general interest,
nor are they ideal subjects for photos meant to be instantly shared on social media.
They are places that need to be captured to preserve a unique gaze,
to hold emotions, memories, fantasies, and desires –
places that can only be revealed through a perspective as unique as
yours.
To delve deeper
When I first conceived this project, I immediately realised that its originality and strength lay in the relationship between the client and the photographer—in the ability to tell and listen to a story, in the desire to help someone see again, and perhaps relive, fragments of their existence, turning them into objects to observe and to rediscover oneself in.
At the same time, I understood the great responsibility I was taking on and the impossibility of “selling” this product as just another service.
To recognise and rediscover oneself should be a right for everyone.
For this reason, I carry out the project “Can I be your eyes?” solely through third-party funding, whether public or private, following the presentation of the idea, adapted each time in different ways but always grounded in its original framework.
If I were to focus on individual private clients, only a few people would be able to afford this book, and it is not my intention to select stories based on a speculative principle.
A book for everyone.
Can I be your eyes?
A video by khonsuphotos.com
Texts by Matteo Sicios and Federica Micucci
Footage by Matteo Sicios and Gianni Nicosia
Photography and editing by Matteo Sicios
Anthropological consultancy by Federica Micucci
Music licensed from artlist.io
Commercially licensed voiceover by Eleonora Di Giacomo
Web storytelling: khonsuphotos.com/project_category/posso-essereil-tuo-sguardo by Sonia Bosio
Special thanks to everyone who contributed to the making of this
video:
Mariano Bianchi, Daniela Lantrua, Mauro Laura, Massimo Vaccari,
and the municipalities of Bajardo, Ceriana, Molini di Triora, Montalto,
and Triora.
Participants:
Franco Ammirati, Livio Tamagno, Piero Lanteri, Laura Gualazzi,
Stefano Embriaco.
