MIRIAMCABRERA
© MIRIAM CABRERA-SANTANA 2026
MOSAIC
WHERE: Anderson (SC) — Ireland — England — Studio 168 — Clemson (SC)
GEAR: Canon R5 — Sony A7R3 — Pentax K1000 — Casio EXILIM EX-Z77 digital camera — Minolta X-700
WHEN: 2024 – IDK...Forever?
This is an ongoing series of portraits; all of me, none taken by me. Weird...who would do that?
In the fall of 2024, in an advance photography class, I became aware of something I had long ignored: I was deeply uncomfortable in front of a camera. Not because of how I looked—I never felt badly about my appearance—but something about a lens pointed at me brought on a quiet anxiety about lacking control. The irony wasn't lost on me. I'm a photographer... I do this for a living.
Around that time, many of my peers had begun centering projects around self-portraits and discovering themselves. I watched them press the shutter on their own terms and found I couldn't bring myself to do the same. A professor who knew me well offered a different direction. He saw me as someone deeply empathetic, someone who pours care into the people around them and he suggested that instead of fighting for control of the image, I give it away entirely. Let the people I love take the picture and allow them to pour into me.
So that's what this is. Friends, family, classmates, mentors—the people I surround myself with capturing me in natural moments and planned ones, in everyday life and in intentional shoots. Each image is shaped by their eye, artistic style, or perception, not mine. The result is something that goes beyond portraiture: it becomes a question. What do the people who love you actually see when they look at you? And how does that invoke feeling in someone else when they see you through their eyes?
This project is about surrender and trust. It's about learning to exist in front of a camera the way I exist in front of the people I care about—openly, without the need to control what gets kept. It is still unfinished, and part of me believes it always will be. This is me as a mosaic of all the people who surround me.
SYDNEY PATTERSON @syds_pinkcamera — BESTFRIEND, ROOMATE, AND CO-DOG MOM — MAR 2026
SYDNEY BROADWELL @syd.leighphotography — A SWEET FRIEND & DEEP INSPIRATION — MAY 2025
MATEO DE LOS COBOS @createdbymateo — FRIEND-LITTLE BROTHER, FOTOGRAFO, AND KIND OF ROOMATE? — MAY 2025
TABBY LO @by.tabby.lo — PROUD HMONG DESIGNER & BEST FRIEND [MI MEDIA NARANJA DE AMIGAS] — DEC 2024
EMMA LIPE @emmafaithstudio — SWEETEST & STONGEST WOMAN OF GOD, FRIEND, AND ROOMATE — OCT 2024
GABE WILLIAMS @zirondelle32 — WEIRDEST FRIEND I’VE EVER HAD, REALLY INSPIRING, DEEP THINKER — NOV 2024
These were taken thirty minutes after learning of the death of a close childhood friend, and one of the only people I felt truly believed in me.
Gabe and I had agreed this would be a collaborative work [check out our last collab]. He does not present himself in front of the camera as the work, but presents himself as part of it, an extesion of himself. We were both admirers of Ana Mendieta's Silueta Series and photographers like Vivian Maier, artists who understood the body as something that exists in relation to the world around it. The more I felt disconnected to everything and everyone, the more I knew I had to keep going. But the longer I stood still, the more I understood why I couldn't move. I couldn't cry. I could barely hold a conversation. Yet somehow I felt composed enough to be present—to be there, in that light, numb yet aware of God’s presence. As the sun began to set, I felt it touch my skin and flicker between the trees. Like a last goodbye. Que en paz descanse.