Photo taken by contributor Riccardo Bevilacqua, a 39-year-old nuclear physicist currently living between Sweden and Belgium. Riccardo loves to travel, and take photos of local people wherever he goes. He worked for many years in his local community with people affected by physical and mental impairments, and he understands and is sensitive to the challenges that the families have to face, often alone. The apartment where he is living now is actually part of an old psychiatric hospital. The municipality decided to refurbish a wing of the building as a residential area, whereas the rest of the former hospital is now adapted as a museum. Geel, the town in which he lives in Belgium, is known for the practice of deinstitutionalization in psychiatric care, and this dates back since the 13th century. Still now-a-days 500 families in Geel alone, host a psychiatric patient in their house, where they live as members of the family itself.

About this photo: “I wanted to explore the distance separating us from others. It takes always some effort to reach out to others. Still, some people remains closed in their world. Sometimes, we are closed in our world and we cannot communicate. This photo speaks to depression and loneliness.”

Find more at Riccardo’s website.

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