All eyes on me

I’ve always known eyes were the mirror of the soul, but never like today, I had realized it.

The use of the surgical mask practically covered three quarters of our face and verbal communication has transferred to the eyes.

The muffled voice finds the right pitch with the blinks of the eyelashes and pupils have become sounding boards.

I think this way of communicating is beautiful but, at the same time, disarming.

The sounds emitted are ominous and they remind me so much Prokofiev’s composition, ‘Peter and the wolf’, in the moment in which the wolf approaches Pierino with the intention of eating him.

“Popopopopooooopo…”

They are eyes full of discouragement, fatigue, uncertainty… they are the historical mirror of the moment we are living and they tell us much more than thousand words.

I’ve photographed in my memory the people’s glances, those I met and those who denied me and I went in search of some curved line or small wrinkle of expression, which hinted at a smile… but the only thing I found was: resignation.

However there must be a way out, resignation must turn into hope in some way… and like the story of ‘Peter and the wolf’, I imagine a triumphal procession of laughing eyes, which goes around the city streets knowing it has defeated the wolf and waving its mask as a sign of freedom.

“Popopopopooooooooopo…”