Maura

"I don't understand why some people say they look ugly in the photo. They look just the way they are".

There I was, at the countryside of Bahia, a place where you can find fantastic people everywhere you look: they're friendly, kind, warm-hearted.

People like Maura, who opened up the house where she has been working in the last years.

When I showed her the photos, she smiled and said: 'this is who I am! I don't understand why some people say they look ugly in the photo. They look just the way they are".

I agree until a certain point. Some people are so self-conscious that is hard to show their real self in a single frame. But not with Maura. Most of the times when I stop talking and started photographing, she stopped looking at the camera, and started staring to nothing, clearly thinking about something else. The body shows that she isn't sure about how to hold the plate with the corn she wanted to show me, but even then, her stare shows that she is not even conscious about my presence anymore. And this happened in most of her photos. So why show the frame with the super smile when I can show you this one, that shows exactly the way she is, like she believes portraiture should be in the first place? ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀