“If we all take a stance and stop being afraid of who we love then we can slowly start creating change,” Paola Paredes said of her Unveiled photo series.
After years of almost coming out to her Ecuadorian parents, London-based photographer Paola Paredes sat her entire family down to say the words she'd been keeping bottled up for so long: "I'm gay." She did so with a camera capturing each moment.
t © Paola Paredes
Coming out of the closet is a simultaneously freeing and terrifying experience, one that 29-year-old Paredes understands all too well. The photographer decided to set up three cameras to document each moment of her coming out in a series of portraits now known as the Unveiled project.
Originally she was hesitant to go through with the reveal at all. "I dismissed the idea because it seemed too crazy. But the thought would not leave me alone. I had never had any intention to come out before. I was convinced I probably would have never done it," she said. Part the her initial hesitation came from her religious upbringing "Just like eighty per cent of the Ecuadorian population, my parents and extended family are all devoutly Catholic," she explained in the project's description.
"But the idea of capturing it in photographs it made it all of a sudden appealing. I like storytelling, and I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to tell one. That really gave me the push I needed." Paredes spent three weeks in Ecuador photographing her parent's daily life and rituals, but they had no idea of her larger plan.
© Paola Paredes