HUMAN CONNECTION SERIES

HUMAN CONNECTION SERIES

Rafael’s Words:

“Human Connection” began rather organically with no intention of embarking on a long-term project. The year 2020 began like any other year, but it quickly turned, as COVID-19 took the world by storm. I felt compelled to leave France for fear of getting stuck with zero income. I returned to the United State and I cancelled all plans for paid photography work or collaborative shoots. I decided to order myself in a quarantine for 3 months because I feared for the safety of others and myself. Meanwhile I was saving up inspiration for when it felt safe or appropriate to shoot with others again. Each day I grabbed new ideas from photography books and social media. During this time, I was also involved in a long-distance relationship. This was a new struggle for me. A world that already felt separated and lonely had gotten even more isolated.

At this same time an African American man named George Floyd, was murdered by police in Minneapolis, MN. This shook the US nation and then spread to shake the whole world, and for the first time in months the only thing to break the news from COVID-19 was George Floyds murder. Protests began in every large city. I felt compelled to document since this has been a tool I have used to understand my surroundings before. At first it was going out to document the protests. This broke the self-quarantine. From there it led to setting up shoots with others because I felt that I had a purpose and good reason to create and send a strong message through my work. To make these shoots safe, they were always socially distanced, and with weekly free testing available in most big cities, models were required to get tested, as well as myself.

From COVID-19, to George Floyds murder, to the long-distance relationship struggles, I felt the need and desire to capture human connection like never before. I started to set up multi-subject shoots. One led the next and before I knew, I had about 20 shoots, all over the USA, in all sorts of environments with all sorts of people. It still didn’t feel like a series. Others who followed my work saw it before I did and gave it the title. It just felt like a message of human connection that I wanted/needed to put out, mostly communicating and sharing my work through social media at this time.

The images and the whole series took on a life of its own in many different forms, including portraits that I staged with my re-united girlfriend. These images were developed to represent humans in the same space, together, sometimes space in between them, standing, strong, being vulnerable with one another. The environments were raw, sometimes in nature spaces. The subjects were also raw as I often made the intentional choice of having them pose without clothing. The subjects ranged from those I knew well to those I did not know at all before meeting them seconds before shooting. Some of these subjects had deep relationships, even romantic, some were good friends, some were complete strangers to one another. All I focused on was documenting the interaction and the connection, or presence or humans, rather than

confining the now series with many requirements. All that mattered was that the subjects were willing to be vulnerable and present with me and each other.

The experience of creating these pieces was more than healing, not just for me, but for the subjects involved. The most recent alteration to the Human Connection Series was shooting with more than 3 subjects. It started with 4 in June of 2021, and quickly escalated to 15 or 20 people, sometimes more involved. This progression also came quite naturally as I once again was building up inspiration for month while hiding in isolation due to a lockdown in Paris, France. When the summer of 2021 opened up I felt so inspired and with a new found energy wanted to create the feeling of human connection on a larger scale. This has been the biggest, most difficult, most rewarding section of the series and I have found a new sense for myself as an artist and my purpose in the world.

I wanted to create this series to show some form of Human Connection. To speak to others through imagery in a way involving humans to somehow spread the message of what we are capable of achieving if we work together on something amazing, but I did not know how these images would touch others online, as well as fill my heart and the subjects involved. Many of these settings were nature or cityscapes, where sunset or sunrise were shot. It was an experience which I aim to find through my photography and to share a moment with the subjects involved. I believe that is why I was so drawn to continue working on this project consistently through the months because of its therapeutic aspect combined with the well-received supportive audience.

The series is on-going but displayed here are a collection of my strongest images that I feel fit the story and theme of ‘Human Connection’ and represent the best of the work I have put in these past 14 months, as well as all the work that led up to taking on a series of this form.