A PLACE OF STILLNESS

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project © Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project © Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project View all images ↓
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A Place of Stillness refers to a poem included in the books of Chilam Balam-tales about the historical facts and circumstances of the Mayan civilization-.This is a visual study of consciousness and the purgation of emotions through art and self expression

“Toda luna, todo año,
todo día, todo viento,
camina y pasa también.
También toda sangre llega
al lugar de su quietud.”

“Each moon, each year,
each day, each wind
walks and also passes.
In the same way all blood comes
to a place of stillness”

                                 – Chilam-Balam

Catharsis means purification, liberation, transformation;
An extreme emotional state that results in renewal and restoration.
A Place of Stillness refers to a poem included in the books of Chilam Balam -tales about the historical facts and circumstances of the Mayan civilization-. This is a visual study of consciousness and the purgation of emotions through art and self expression.
With the aim to better understand how people use certain experiences to transcend the prison of their minds and achieve a different state of awareness I began forging a connection between spirituality and visual expression.
The exploration from this synergy serves as a guide towards a universal goal: the gift of connecting with the present moment through the liberation of the conditioned mind.
To find this place is to find a gap between thoughts, a dimension deeper than thinking, a Place of Stillness.

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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A quinceañera (Mexican version of sweet sixteen at fifteen), gets ready for a portrait session in her 15th birthday celebration in the City of Mexico, Mexico.A quinceañera celebration marks a young woman's transition from childhood to adulthood at age 15, often involving a religious ceremony (such as a mass) followed by a large party with dancing, music, and symbolic traditions such as the chang

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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Several people gather around a bonefire celebrating a Cacao ceremony in the town of San Agustinillo in Oaxaca, Mexico.The cacao ceremony is an ancestral Mesoamerican ritual that uses ceremonial cacao for healing, spiritual connection, and self-knowledge, involving drinking a hot beverage of pure cacao in an intentional space, guided by facilitators and accompanied by meditation, music, singing, a

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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A group of men training a self defence class with knives at Parque Mexico at the City of Mexico, Mexico.Mental focus and flow are essential in martial arts, allowing practitioners to achieve a state of total immersion ("being in the zone") through meditation, visualization, and repetition, which improves technical execution, emotional control, and decision-making, transforming conscious movement

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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João Teixeira de Faria, popularly known as João de Deus, a Brazilian self-proclaimed medium, and self-proclaimed psychic surgeon performing an eye operation with a common knife and no anesthesia. Teixeira de Faria was based in Abadiânia, Brazil, where he ran a spiritual healing center called the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola. Currently, João de Deus is serving a sentence under house arrest due t

© Rafael Fabrés - A fisherman holds the eye of a marlin fish at San Agustinillo beach in Oaxaca, Mexico.(Photo by Rafael Fabrés)
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A fisherman holds the eye of a marlin fish at San Agustinillo beach in Oaxaca, Mexico.(Photo by Rafael Fabrés)

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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The young dominatrix known as “PGMXIII” about to do a performance at a BDSM party organized by the SadoTech community in Mexico City. BDSM is an acronym for consensual sexual practices that focus on power, restraint, and discipline, encompassing Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sadism and Masochism, where pleasure comes from role dynamics, boundary negotiation, and the explor

© Rafael Fabrés - Two car window washers get into a fight in the City of Mexico, Mexico.(Photo by Rafael Fabrés)
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Two car window washers get into a fight in the City of Mexico, Mexico.(Photo by Rafael Fabrés)

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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A group of men descends to dive from a cliff in Acapulco, Mexico.The cliff divers of La Quebrada are a world icon and an unmissable tradition of Acapulco, famous for their spectacular jumps from a 35-meter-high cliff into a narrow cove of the Pacific Ocean.The mental concentration of the divers at La Quebrada is a mixture of discipline, tradition, and faith, where they reach a state of flow to s

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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Valeria Monforte, a Butoh dancer and artist, poses with two passersby walking their dogs in Mexico City.Butoh is a Japanese dance-theater that emerged in the 1950s as a response to the trauma of World War II, known as the "dance of darkness," which explores the subconscious, the grotesque, and the beautiful through slow, static, and often contorted movements, with bodies painted white, seeking to

© Rafael Fabrés - Portrait of a transgender woman on a toilet in a bar in the City of Mexico, Mexico. (Photo by Rafael Fabrés)
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Portrait of a transgender woman on a toilet in a bar in the City of Mexico, Mexico. (Photo by Rafael Fabrés)

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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The dominatrix known as “PGMXIII” poses at her home before attending a BDSM party organized by the SadoTech community in Mexico City. BDSM is an acronym for consensual sexual practices that focus on power, restraint, and discipline, encompassing Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sadism and Masochism, where pleasure comes from role dynamics, boundary negotiation, and the explor

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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Numerous people join together to pray and to be attended by Joao Teixeira de Faria in the house of Ignacio de Loyola.João Teixeira de Faria, popularly known as João de Deus, a Brazilian self-proclaimed medium, was based in Abadiânia, Brazil, where he ran a spiritual healing center called the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola. Currently, João de Deus is serving a sentence under house arrest due to he

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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A group of people engage on a performance at BDSM party organized by the SadoTech community in Mexico City. BDSM is an acronym for consensual sexual practices that focus on power, restraint, and discipline, encompassing Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sadism and Masochism, where pleasure comes from role dynamics, boundary negotiation, and the exploration of sensations beyond

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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A group of practitioners dance in a trance state next to some candles during an Umbanda ceremony in a "terreiro" in the Fallet Fogueteiro favela in Rio de Janeiro.Umbanda is a syncretic Afro-Brazilian religion that blends elements of Catholicism, Spiritism (Kardecism), and Indigenous and African traditions. Founded by Zélio Fernandino de Moraes in 1908, it focuses on spiritual charity, communicat

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez, known as Fray Tormenta, poses for a portrait before giving a mass at the San José Parish in Texcoco, a city about 25 kilometers north of the City of Mexico.Fray Tormenta is a Mexican priest and retired professional wrestler who founded and runs an orphanage, which he financed through his wrestling career. He is currently retired, but still wears his mask while carrying o

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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A man runs down the street carrying a "Torito" (little bull) on his shoulders in Huautla de Jimenez, Oaxaca.The "Toritos" festival is a colorful popular tradition, especially during patron saint festivals, where a person dresses up as a bull with a structure full of fireworks that explodes while dancing and running among the people, symbolizing strength, fertility and the struggle between good an

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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An actor portraying Judas Iscariot hangs from a tree during a Passion of Christ reenactment in the Iztapalapa neighborhood in the City of Mexico, Mexico.The Passion of Christ in Iztapalapa is an epic theatrical performance held annually outdoors in Iztapalapa, Mexico City, during the Catholic celebrations of Holy Week. Reenacting the Passion of Christ, its first performance was in 1843. The relig

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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A bouncer poses with a "fichera" at the Barba Azul Cabaret in Mexico City.The "ficheras" at the Barba Azul in Mexico City are women who work in this emblematic cabaret, accompanying customers to dance and consume drinks, earning money through a system of tokens that men buy for them and that are later exchanged for cash.Barba Azul is a legendary establishment founded in 1950, located in the Colo

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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Stylist and founder of the "Traveling Beauty Brigades", Diego Sixto, helps a woman named Sandy style her hair before a Butoh ceremony in Mexico Park in Mexico City, Mexico.The "Traveling Beauty Brigades" are a collective of beauty professionals (stylists, hairdressers, and makeup artists) who carry out humanitarian and altruistic work in various public and cultural spaces in Mexico City.Their wo

© Rafael Fabrés - Image from the A PLACE OF STILLNESS photography project
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A man dives into the sea from a cliff in Acapulco, Mexico.The cliff divers of La Quebrada are a world icon and an unmissable tradition of Acapulco, famous for their spectacular jumps from a 35-meter-high cliff into a narrow cove of the Pacific Ocean.The mental concentration of the divers at La Quebrada is a mixture of discipline, tradition, and faith, where they reach a state of flow to synchron