Taken by Natallia Pershaj.

Part of the the Reframing Home Exhibition.

I have a photo of a cat and my shadow, and the story behind the photo is quite simple. As an introvert, I don’t interact with people a lot, especially if I don’t speak their language freely, which happens to most foreigners in Portugal. And for a certain period of time, you are not able to communicate with many people. And for an introverted person doing remote work from home, it’s even more challenging to talk to someone and actually, the cat was the first Portuguese with whom I interacted at the very start and the longest and on the most regular basis, almost every day. I don’t know the people, the owners, but I know the cat. I know all his collars, all his poses and he kind of sometimes recognizes me and looks at me like I’m a familiar face to him. Well, for a year or something, he was my best Portuguese friend.