Portraits for No One is an ongoing series where short stories and black-and-white photographs intertwine to explore the art of remembering how it felt.
Set in the mythical town of Hometown, each film unfolds at the edge of memory and dream. The photographs do not illustrate the stories; they expand them — offering another dimension to the emotional truth.
Set in the mythical town of Hometown, each film unfolds at the edge of memory and dream. The photographs do not illustrate the stories; they expand them — offering another dimension to the emotional truth.
Shifting Absence
Shifting Absence is a visual fragment from The Hourglass, a story about time slipping loose from its hinges and memory breaking into pieces too small to reassemble.
In this short film, Don Nicanor Aguado tries to recall the woman who once unsettled the quiet order of his life. But her face returns only in fragments — a half-smile, a loosened strand of hair, the pale curve of a shoulder. The rest dissolves into a shifting absence: a portrait patched together from dreams, recollections, and the things he never dared imagine.
This excerpt lingers on the fragile nature of remembrance:
- how the people we loved most can become the hardest to see clearly,
- how memory rearranges itself into new shapes,
- and how longing can survive even when the face it belongs to disappears.
- how the people we loved most can become the hardest to see clearly,
- how memory rearranges itself into new shapes,
- and how longing can survive even when the face it belongs to disappears.
I began Portraits for No One as a dialogue between image and word — an attempt to preserve not events, but sensations.
My films are my way of remembering how it felt: the hunger, the tenderness, and the quiet courage of seeing the world as if for the first time.
My films are my way of remembering how it felt: the hunger, the tenderness, and the quiet courage of seeing the world as if for the first time.
You can watch Breakfasts at Maribel, the opening episode of the series, on my YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/NcMYTTQv590
https://youtu.be/NcMYTTQv590
Each month, I share an unpublished story and photographs from Portraits for No One.
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Concept, Photography, Story: JJ Jordan
Featuring: Maria Alves, Hannah Lockhart, Alexa Martinez, Magdalena Skiba , Ella Valentine
Narrator: Ozzy Eyre
Music: Orchestralis
Featuring: Maria Alves, Hannah Lockhart, Alexa Martinez, Magdalena Skiba , Ella Valentine
Narrator: Ozzy Eyre
Music: Orchestralis
Thank you for visiting Hometown.
You may not remember it clearly, but perhaps you’ve been here before.
You may not remember it clearly, but perhaps you’ve been here before.
