Through the photographic gaze, it is possible to explore complex identities, cultural specificities, and collective memories, creating connections that reveal differences but also shared values and needs. In this sense, it takes on an anthropological significance: it becomes a method of field research, capable of capturing gestures, atmospheres, and contexts, bringing people closer and fostering a deeper understanding of their world. Here we present three projects in which the past seems to emerge as "the call" that captures the gaze, invites observation, and prompts reflection—encouraging us to question and measure our own certainties and boundaries. For Randy Calderone, Scranton is a way to reconnect with childhood memories rooted in the years of the Rust Belt industrial crisis—a period from which his family eventually distanced itself, leaving behind an unfinished story that the photographer now seeks to take up again. São Tomé and Príncipe offers Carlos Barradas a space for engaging with a collective reflection that touches on his Portuguese identity, as well as his personal foundations and his background as an anthropologist. Finally, Campamento Quisicuaba—formerly a public school and now a shelter for the homeless in Havana, Cuba—provides Jaime Permuth an opportunity to question his own role as an observer, photographer, and artist.
© Randy Calderone from the series "What If You Don’t Believe In Me And You’re Wrong?"
The project What If You Don’t Believe In Me And You’re Wrong? by Randy Calderone is conceived as a return to his roots, a photographic investigation that becomes an opportunity to reflect on the role of imagery as a tool for connecting with places and the communities that inhabit them. Calderone turns his gaze to Scranton, the city where his parents grew up and the backdrop of his childhood experiences in the 1980s, when the industrial decline that had affected the Rust Belt since the second half of the twentieth century was already visible in its streets, landscapes, and everyday life.
© Randy Calderone from the series "What If You Don’t Believe In Me And You’re Wrong?"
© Randy Calderone from the series "What If You Don’t Believe In Me And You’re Wrong?"
Today, forty years later—and in a period marked by personal transformation, including becoming a father, entering his forties, and living with a chronic illness—the artist returns to those places in search of a deeper visual understanding of his origins. Photography thus becomes a field-based research method, capable of bringing people closer, recording gestures and atmospheres, and reading in the details of the territory the cultural specificities that endure over time.
© Randy Calderone from the series "What If You Don’t Believe In Me And You’re Wrong?"
Through this dialogue between past and present, Calderone explores themes such as spirituality, patriotism, work ethic, and belonging—elements he rediscovers in the symbols scattered throughout the city and recognizes as foundations of his own upbringing.
Carlos Barradas’ work parallels an anthropological approach: it emphasizes immersion in local contexts, attentive observation of gestures, and the interpretive role of art in connecting people with their histories. The project underscores how visual and performative practices can foster cultural dialogue, amplify marginalized voices, and engage with postcolonial discourse on memory, resilience, and identity.
© Carlos Barradas from "Alima b'ê dê, Naviyu b ê dê"
Alima b'ê dê, Naviyu b ê dê by Barradas investigates the syncretic ritual of D’jambi in São Tomé e Príncipe, offering a profound exploration of how photography and multimedia can ponder relationships with both cultural heritage and collective memory. The title, meaning “soul has left, ship has sailed,” encapsulates the archipelago’s complex history as a central node in the Portuguese slave trade from the 16th century until independence in 1975.
Barradas approaches D’jambi as a boundary object: a ritual space where ancestral spirits, ghosts, and human participants intersect, revealing how trauma and historical violence are processed and healed within a community.
© Carlos Barradas from "Alima b'ê dê, Naviyu b ê dê"
© Carlos Barradas from "Alima b'ê dê, Naviyu b ê dê"
Through photography, video, sound recordings, and collaborative interviews with local healers, anthropologists, and artists, the project captures the movements, rhythms, and atmospheres that transform participants into vessels for spirits, highlighting bodily and spiritual practices as tools of restitution. It is a meditation on life, death, and the persistence of colonial legacies, emphasizing how spectral presences challenge historical narratives, confront systemic injustices, and open paths for collective reflection and healing.
Jaime Permuth’s Quisicuaba project emerges instead from an artist residency experience that becomes an opportunity to reflect on the role of photography as a tool for building relationships and connecting with specific territorial and community contexts. The artist engages with Campamento Quisicuaba, a shelter and rehabilitation center for homeless people in Havana, housed in a former brutalist school building. Through daily dialogue with the residents and careful observation of their gestures, routines, and the spaces they inhabit, Permuth creates a project that combines photographic portraits with texts authored by the residents themselves, generating a multiplicity of voices and perspectives.
© Jaime Permu from "Quisicuaba"
Permuth’s experience demonstrates that photography serves primarily as a pretext to approach people’s lives. It allows him to capture details and atmospheres and opens a window onto the complexity of everyday existence. His immersive practice, sharing the spaces, rhythms, and rituals of the residents, enables him to convey their stories with humanity and respect, overcoming cultural and geographic distance.
© Jaime Permu from "Quisicuaba"
© Jaime Permu from "Quisicuaba"
These project highlights how visual art can foster genuine relationships between observer and observed, offering insights into the specificity of a unique social context. It encourages intercultural understanding and empathy rather than rough conclusions, revealing how photography can transform the act of looking into a practice of care.
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