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Two people are looking at each other. Two people communicate through sight. One of them is holding a pencil and the other one is holding a camera. The one holding the pencil looks at the pencil, at the other person, at the camera and the space around them. The one holding the camera looks at the other person, directly and through the viewfinder. Visual communication is formed between them, by looking at each other for a while, whilst focusing at the same time on their objects as a point that they are going back to again and again.

“Blyertspenna” is the process of building intimacy with my cousin, Kristina, through photography. Kristina is autistic and does not communicate verbally. The starting point of the series is the pencil that she is always holding, an item that has lost its original use and has been recontextualized as a token of comfort. Working with her has highlighted to me how an interaction can be based on the act of looking and on the act of showing as forms of communication.  Practicing sight as a way of communicating, as a different form of language, we connect in an interplay of observing the pencil and each other.