love, sex and relationships is a collection of intimate conversations between myself and others.

It is a multidisciplinary documentation project, which includes questions to myself, couples and individuals, who live or have lived a love relationship as well as containing reflections, thoughts, emotions and poems, on the theme of love, sex and relationships.

 

“I felt a strange attraction towards him, which I could not understand and control. He was often drunk, fond of pornography, ready to accuse me, humiliate me, offend me. But I wanted to understand what it was that led me to remain in such a relationship: what is love? Life again confronted me with psychological, physical and emotional abuse, but this time it was different; I was aware. Finally I was able to observe the pain separated from me and aware of the abuse, using my camera, video documentation and writing as forms of expression to get myself out of a somewhat oppressive situation and understand why I was ‘in love’ with this man. I felt guilty, angry, frustrated and jealous of someone who didn’t respect me. Or perhaps wasn’t I respecting myself? Too much empathy hurts at some point, until we have the courage to abandon everything if it doesn’t make us feel good. This is where the strength of loving oneself resides.”

 

Twenty – five people took part in the project, couples and  single individuals met online and in the streets of London.

I explored different relationships: from heterosexual relationships to homosexual, single mothers, divorced or separated couples ….

Addiction to love can cause emotional problems such as depression, anxiety, violence, jealousy, obsessive thoughts, pain and confusion. Many of us are trapped in toxic sexual and love relationships.

After the interview, I then, invited the couples or individuals to represent their relationship to the camera, any way they wished. Traditionally, a photographer searches for telling images of his or her subject. My approach has been, rather, to find out how the subjects of my project might portray themselves.

 

“I wanted to explore what it is like for others to be in a relationship. What is love? What is sex? What is a relationship ?Do you love yourself? Does education, culture, religion confuse us? What do we fear? Are we free?”

 

The project started before Brexit and Covid 19 in multi-ethnic London while I was in a love relationship with my ex-boyfriend, which later became abusive and develops the theme of love. I didn’t love myself. 

The video photography project includes analog photographs in black and white, a video documentation (16 individual videos, total duration 6 hours), a trailer,  a nine minutes monologue titled do you love yourself? and a photography book still working in progress.

The video documentation is recorded in London and it is in English with English subtitles. The English subtitles are transcribed and translated by me with the collaboration of Jonathan Graham and Peter Dixon.

 

The project of love, sex and relationships can be followed on Instagram

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