ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE

Charged with subtlety and poignancy, Charico Miranda Cruz’s “All the Lonely People” is a collection of photographs determined to propose hints of solitude and stillness captured among the banality of everyday life. Professionally trained in Multimedia Arts and Photography, Cruz presents us images of strangers as they pass through his lens going about their day: strolling busy streets, waiting for their train, and some resting by a bustling corner.

Chased by one of the most famous lines in Baroque pop music, verses of The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby comes to Cruz as he takes on every click of the shutter in wonder: “All the lonely people, where do we all belong? All the lonely people where do we all come from?”.

Here, the photographer’s dedication to capture the most intimate and yet public moments of an individual piques our curiosity in the stories these images are waiting to tell.  Though, many of the photographs highlight the waking life, Cruz is also bent on presenting surroundings as beings that carry an equal sense of importance and tranquility: places can also become the reason for solace or loneliness especially on the brink of nostalgia. Hence, the idea of belongingness in relation to being lonely is almost always captivated on the assertion of our relationship with a certain place; whether physical or representational.  As a travel photographer, Cruz forms a bond with the environment where he takes his photographs; the artist should not be removed and simply remain as an observer but must also belong within the landscape, whilst working behind the camera.

Thus, we are now positioned to reckon with these visual tales; they, too, could be our own narratives of our inherent desire to celebrate individuality while immersed in the warmth of belongingness and relationships to people, to places, to ourselves.

But where do we all come from?

-Gwen Bautista, Writer