Beyond a Metre Radius
The Power of Empathy. A Photo Story from Ajuda
With 35mm Film Photos Shot in Lisbon
This week’s post was going to be about connection and authenticity… but honestly, after being silent for more than two weeks in respect of the Black Lives Matter movement, to come back and talk about myself feels slightly wrong.
And although I do talk about myself, because I believe in the power of sharing our personal experience as a source of inspiration and even an opportunity to connect with others, in these times it feels fairer to set aside my particular experience – with all its trauma and reflections – and turn the look to the outside world, that these days, excuse my french, is pretty fucked up.
What’s happening in the US feels absurd to me, and I am sure to many others. The absurdity lies not so much in the undoubted injustice, violence and abuse — unfortunately not uncommon in this world — but more in how it keeps happening year after year, decade after decade, in the exact same way.
Shouldn't we know better? In these “evolved” and “over-developed” Western societies we live in? Societies that – according to most – entitle us to look at so-called “underdeveloped” countries and tell them how it would be best they lived their lives?
Do we seriously feel in a position to go around teaching people things?
And well, yes I find this absurd, anachronistic … I honestly don’t understand it. I am actually incapable of making sense of such a blatant display of racism, of pure violence and disrespect for life.
Earlier last week, watching the documentary on Cambridge Analytica scandal, “The Great Hack”, and observing the behaviours of some of those responsible, I came back to this same feeling of incredulity and incapability of understanding.
And I had a thought: what if racism, discrimination and the apparent stubbornness of privileged and powerful people to ignore injustice and abuse is not a purposeful act? Or at least not an act made in complete awareness?
Watch out! I would not dream of justifying these events, let alone the individuals, corporations and governments responsible for them, I am just saying – and other people smarter than me, have talked about this before – what if they are lacking the capability of seeing the real consequences of what they are doing? And I don’t mean they don’t know about the immediate consequences, I mean they are not fully able to grasp the impact of their actions on society and future generations.
When Carole Cadwalladr asks “Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg and Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Jack Dorsey, and your employees and investors, too … Is this how you want history to remember you”. She is holding on to this same concept, of a bigger picture that we need to consider and be aware of.
What are we as human beings if we cannot think past a five-year plan, past economic growth, past the power of a few or white privilege? If we cannot see how our actions are impacting not only us today, and maybe our children, but also our future and the future of our planet and all the other living beings on it?
Certainly, it is overwhelming to consider all of this when grocery shopping! But maybe if you're the CEO of a powerful multi-million dollar corporation, or a police officer, at the very least it you should take it into consideration? Checklist for decision making: is my company destroying democracy?
And what if this capability to consider the bigger picture can be taught? What if this capability is nothing else than empathy? Something that can be taught by developing emotional intelligence, just as any other type of intelligence?
What if a shift of societal values can make this happen, maybe not tomorrow or in 2021, but soon enough (and in this case, more than ever, later is definitely better than never)? What if learning to work together with our emotions is not just an aspect of personal development, useful as we get to know ourselves, but is the fundamental step we need to take to understand the extent of our actions and move toward saving the planet, and humanity, for REAL?
Because all these necessary movements, from the Black Lives Matter movement to the various groups fighting to protect the environment, end slavery and war, and many more, are all saying the same thing.
Look at us! We humans have the right to be free and to thrive, and guess what, the direction we are heading in is going to destroy everything!
It is not even a matter of equality anymore it’s a matter of necessity and survival for us all.
Just like we are learning that trash does not disappear, destruction does not either, and it may not impact you now, but is this really the only criteria you want to measure the gravity of an issue? Whether it impacts you or not?
Why do anything at all then? Really, what’s the point if all we care about is ourselves today and a meter radius around us?
I am really starting to think that all the things I wanted to write about are connected to the concept of abundance, prosperity, and distancing ourselves from a mindset of scarcity, a tool for powerful people to create fear and stress, making control easier for them.
The rise of inequality and discrimination is based just on this scarcity mindset, allowing certain people to think they need others to have less so they can have more… they need others to have less power so they can have more control. The events from which the Black Lives Matter movement was born, and unfortunately many many other contexts and situations of violence and abuse, may possibly be brought down to this.
On the base of the same scarcity mindset, business competition becomes a fight where the code is the law of the strongest, when instead, through differentiation and collaboration, markets would become a more sustainable ecosystem where everyone has their own place and niche (and slice of the cake).
The same relationship of wielding power over someone is applied to the planet and the environment, where humans and the earth are two separate entities, with the first one exploiting the latter. Between us … we all know we need oxygen to breath, water to survive. I find it difficult to understand how we have walked so far away from nature that we don’t recognise how vital its survival is for our own.
A scarcity mindset can thrive in a context of ignorance and segregation, of division where the other can be ignored, not taken into account. A context where we are not forced or facilitated to look at the bigger picture or be challenged to raise our awareness and use our emotional intelligence.
A few days after starting working on this article, walking around Ajuda – the district where I live in Lisbon – my mind came back to this concept of emotional intelligence and empathy as a tool to raise awareness and so build a base for a more equal society.
My gaze fell onto the strange variety of new and old buildings, and the gated communities that are unfortunately becoming increasingly common here. Luxurious enclosed buildings with gates and cameras on the door bell. Which honestly makes me laugh, as I don’t even have an intercom on my door and I feel very safe nonetheless.
I find it really sad, and dangerous even. The people living in these gated communities don’t have any idea about the social context of where they live. They will spend their days in their private gardens and swimming pools, take the car to go everywhere, probably never shop in their own neighbourhood. In this way, the people that have the power to make things better and push the administration to invest money in fixing houses are not even aware of it.
And here I have to catch myself. It makes me angry in a way that is real close to envy. It pushes me to take water from that above mentioned well of scarcity, making me feel like they are taking away from me and from people less fortunate than me.
And this is why I tried to bring it back to awareness and to how wealthier people coming to live in Ajuda is not itself a bad thing. It could provide opportunity to move things around for everyone, for the better, if supported by an ecosystem that prioritises integration and the wellbeing of the citizens with the intention of renewal and wealth for everyone.
I’ve seen lots of people in the neighbourhood living in crumbling and decrepit buildings— probably dangerous and definitely harsh to live in. Two days ago I got angry because it was literally raining in the kitchen. I got angry at the landlord “because it’s not fair to pay an expensive rent and live like this” … and whilst saying this, I instantly realised that I am still privileged compared to a lot of people.
I thought back to my first photo series (Layers), for the collective exhibition Lisbon On Film, and the idea behind it.
The theme of the exhibition was Lisbon. it would have been really easy to focus on the many beautiful buildings and views to produce a polished and pleasingly colourful series. I did not want that, after two years in Lisbon I felt like I owed something more to this city. I wanted my work to be more authentic.
But I also did not want to focus on the other extreme, simply exhibiting abandoned buildings or construction works (a real problem, especially around downtown), as I wanted to send a positive message.
So I asked myself, how do we define beauty in a city? What is Lisbon for me and why does it feel so “right” to be here? And it was exactly that strange variety I was talking about where I found my answer.
This is how “Layers” was born. The constant overlap of lines, colours, layers, sounds, cultures, is what gives a city its own character. The stratification of old and new, water and land, tidiness and abandon. I wrote in the poem that accompanied the series:
“... layers are the essence of urban evolution. Cells of an organism reproducing, growing, constantly and continuously changing.”
These layers have to be looked at as a whole. They have to be cared for as a whole for the good of the community. A city, a country, is, in fact, made of people: diverse peoples. valuable people.
Racism, inequality, and gated communities do not take this into consideration, and if we need to teach emotional intelligence in schools to see a radical change happen, even 50 years from now, that still gives me hope.
But let me add one more thing, for the time being, whilst we work on a school program and develop a society that prizes emotional intelligence and empathy important skills, it’s fair enough to burn it all down and make our voices heard.
Because enough is enough. And no one should feel that it is ok to kill someone, let alone for the colour of his skin and the name of the authority that should be there to enforce the law.
It’s disgusting, and I, as a human being, am fucking angry.
Photography
Location: between Ajuda and Belem
Period: May 2019 to May 2020
Camera: Nikon F2
Lens: Nikkor 35mm ƒ1:2.8
Films: Kodak 200 (expired), Fuji Colour 200, Kodak Pro 100
Inspirations
Bentoism — A guide to self-coherence (more info at bentoism.org)
This Could Be Our Future by Yancey Strickler
The Great Hack by Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim — A documentary on the Cambridge Analytics scandal
“Coffee That Makes Sense: On Racism” — A Zoom event and discussion I was part of. Organised by Makesense Lisbon (Facebook page)