And Within, a Soul
The project “And Within, a Soul” is a visual journey through innocence, memory, and the hidden emotional world within us.
Through photography and symbolism, it follows a familiar figure moving through spaces of solitude, searching for sincerity and light in an increasingly artificial world.
Synopsis:
Young autistic artist Naomi Lautier created this performance, driven by her sincere, unfiltered love for Mickey Mouse. In her perception of the world, that childlike, unguarded vision survives, the one most of us lose along the way. Inside the Mickey costume is Naomi herself, a symbol of the pure soul that lives within each of us.
The project is a series of photographs following a single character through familiar spaces: empty hotels, subway stations, laundromats, crowds absorbed in their screens. He searches for himself in places where reflections seem more real than reality itself. This is not a specific story, it is an inner journey from the shattering of an iconic image, through solitude and confusion, toward hope.
Mickey is us. Our attempt to hold on to fragile faith in a world that may fall apart at any moment. Here, loneliness is not only loss, it is also a space where one can finally listen to oneself. Even the simplest gestures, feeding birds, holding a balloon, watching the city lights, become small affirmations of one’s own existence. And it is precisely where illusions dissolve that beauty begins to appear.
