Espejos Compartidos: How We See Ourselves Through Others
The Sunday morning light slants differently through my apartment windows—November light, clear and decisive, cutting sharp shadows across my living room. It's just past 9AM in Barcelona, and I'm nursing my second coffee while scrolling through yesterday's photographs, seeing something I hadn't fully recognized before.
Yesterday, while editing the Día de los Muertos images, I received a message from Carmela thanking me for capturing her family's celebration. "Nos viste como somos," she wrote. "You saw us as we are." Her words have been echoing in my mind all night, revealing something essential about this evolution I've been tracking.
We don't evolve in isolation. Every step of my growth as a photographer and human has been shaped by relationships—with subjects, mentors, strangers who become momentary companions, and even with those no longer physically present.
Nos convertimos en quienes somos a través de los ojos de otros, cada conexión un espejo diferente reflejando posibilidades distintas de nosotros mismos.
We become who we are through the eyes of others, each connection a different mirror reflecting distinct possibilities of ourselves.
This morning, reviewing my recent work, I see how my photography has transformed most dramatically when I've allowed myself to be changed by encounters. The technical mastery I've developed matters, but it serves something greater—the capacity to enter into genuine relationship with what stands before my lens.
Perhaps this is what distinguishes mere technical skill from true mastery: the recognition that we don't simply document the world; we participate in a web of relationships that shapes both subject and observer. Each photograph becomes a record not of what I saw, but of an exchange between us—a moment of mutual recognition.
As I prepare for today's afternoon shoot at the community garden project, I'm carrying this awareness: that my evolution as a photographer isn't measured by technical achievements alone, but by my growing capacity to enter into relationship with what I photograph—to see and be seen, to influence and be influenced, to change and be changed.
La maestría no es conquista sino conversación—un diálogo continuo con el mundo y sus habitantes.
Mastery isn't conquest but conversation—an ongoing dialogue with the world and its inhabitants.
In this November light, I'm beginning to understand that the spiral of growth I've been contemplating isn't traveled alone. It's a path we walk together, each relationship offering another turn upward toward a more complete vision—of our subjects, our craft, and ultimately, ourselves.
Sofia