I created this image for the Fotografar Palavras (1) project, where small text fragments are distributed to photographers who translate them into images.

For this photograph, the provided text was: “I don't know what you feel, I can't accept anything less than love.” My interpretation of the author's mention of love aligns with Spinoza's concept of joyful effects in relation to sad effects. Spinoza's joy and sadness differ from the conventional notions of happiness and unhappiness. According to Spinoza, joy is that which enhances our capacity to act. In this context, even anger in response to an unjust situation, compelling us to assert our rights or establish new ones, is considered a joyful affect as it propels us toward an ethics.

With this ethical perspective in mind, I interpreted love. As a joyful affect, love is the affirmation of existence, Spinoza would argue, involving a series of other affects along its path, excluding the negation of oneself and the Other. And it is in this sense that, through the photo, I echo the author's words: "I cannot admit anything less than love."

I created an analog collage using reprints of a photograph from my childhood. It was a loving reunion with my child self and the doors that were once possible and became possible from that point onward.

(1) . Fotografar palavras - to turn word into photography. Project: Paulo Kellerman. Excerpt: Maria Ervilha