PAIN / DOLOR
Exhibitions, Presentations & Publications
Dummies Exhibition 2025— 15th Photography Book Fair of Lisbon · Lisbon, Portugal
Dummy Award 2025 — Shortlisted · World Tour 2025 (jury session, Cologne, Germany) — touring: Sofia · Milan · Cologne · Dortmund · Barcelona · Arles · Prague · Wiesbaden · New York · Dublin · Santiago · Bangkok · Mexico City · Hong Kong · Dhaka · Jakarta
Photobook as Object — Reminders Photography Stronghold · Group Exhibition · Tokyo, Japan
The Body as an Archive of Pain and Resistance — Lecture · Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile · Santiago, Chile
Synesthesia and Visual Representation — Seminar Presentation · Universidad Diego Portales · Santiago, Chile
Pain is an intimate serie that explores the body as a site marked by physical and emotional pain. Through self-portraiture, it becomes a gesture of resistance, inviting the viewer to reflect and connect through shared vulnerability.
Pain is a visual exploration of transformation—a journey in which I confront suffering, reclaim my body, and find meaning in struggle. Over the past several years, I have used photography to navigate personal pain through the lens of boxing. This project is not merely about the sport; it is a profound reflection on the emotional and physical battles that shape us, the pain we inherit, and the pain we ultimately learn to master.
Six years ago, when I first stepped into the boxing ring, I felt an immediate connection, as though the sport had always been part of me. It awakened something deeply embedded within me—a memory buried in my body for years. For the first time, the emotional weight I had carried began to shift. Boxing became more than just physical training; it became a means of reclaiming my suffering, a process of reasserting control over the pain passed down through generations.
There is no escape in boxing. Every punch, every moment of exhaustion, every breath after a blow demands presence. The ring forces me to face my limits, to piece together fragments of self, and to confront both external opponents and internal struggles. Boxing became a metaphor for life itself—facing challenges, falling, and rising again.
However, pain has many forms. A sudden back injury halted my training, confining me to my home for two years. During this time, I faced unrelenting neuropathic pain and isolation, which deepened into depression. Unable to fight physically, I turned to photography as a new form of healing—a tool for rediscovering my body. Through the lens of my camera, I documented my recovery and began to reconnect with my own sense of self.
In the course of this journey, I discovered a poignant connection: my maternal grandfather had been a boxer too. Though I never met him, his tragic death in a mountain river had cast a shadow over my family. Through this project, I felt a thread binding past and present, loss and resilience, giving me the strength to continue.
Pain is not just a photobook; it is a tribute to human endurance—the courage to rebuild, redefine, and accept the impermanence of our bodies. Through self-portraits taken before and after training, I seek to capture the solitude of healing and the relentless drive to move forward. At its heart, the project is a celebration of our capacity to transmute pain into meaning and beauty. Boxing is a metaphor for the human condition: a continuous cycle of falling, rising, and pushing forward, no matter how many times we are knocked down.
