I cover my eyes

and my mind

While I navigate in my own universe

it is so unique, so immense

It feels so good to have a place that I can call mine

a place that belongs to me

where no one can come in

it's only me

and that voice inside me

I call it my best company

it's wonderful

it's beautiful

and it's infinite 

Photo and words by Joana Meneses

"This existence isn’t about learning to accept reality; but rather remembering your power to create it."
Michael Cummings 

Life

Life spins and spins around and while you spin you go crazy, you learn, you teach, you find yourself. And life continues to spin until you are in the right place, where you dreamed to be. Where you truly wanted to be.

Photo n Words: Joana Meneses

Model: Lea Sciebretch

It was written in the stars for you and I to be together

R.

De volta a casa

Brincadeira mais engraçada do universo...

I am so grateful you are in my life

Sempre soubemos que estaríamos destinados a ficar juntos. E agora sabemos que vamos ter a melhor das aventuras, juntos. Não somos exatamente a mesma pessoa, e isso é ok. É mais do que ok. É tão bom que somos diferentes mas nos encaixamos tão perfeitamente. Estamos prontos para crescer juntos, para nos ajudarmos um ao outro, para nos completarmos. Que sentimento tão bom... Amo o sentimento da nossa paixão, da nossa intimidade, a nossa vulnerabilidade. Adoro as nossas conversas, a forma como continuamos a aumentar a nossa vibração juntos, a forma como sorrimos quando falamos um com o outro, porque nos sentimos tão ouvidos, tão percebidos, tão conectados. Amo a nossa história, vou amar sempre.

You reminde me of summer, you remind me of happy melodies and you reminde me of my shy smile. You reminde me the birds I like to hear singing, you reminde me long walks by the river and you remind me my best years. You reminde me my true friends, you reminde me love and you reminde me the best is yet to come.

Photography: Joana Meneses

Model: Lea

In love with a ghost

I used to be in love with a ghost. He would play the piano behind me and I would dance in my mind only. I used to feel inside a cage and I used to think I was free. But I wasn't. And I also wasn't in love with the ghost. I only liked to hear him. But I wasn't hearing me. So I let the ghost go. And I let myself be free and I listen myself everyday, since I left that ghost.

Photography: Joana Meneses

Model: Gabriela Cunha Viana

Let's stay together?

I'm so in love with you
Whatever you want to do
Is all right with me
Cause you make me feel so brand new

self portrait

O meu coração dói quando penso que vais embora.

I'm gonna let you make my heart beat faster.

Photography by @joanameneses.photos

Model @Lisa Siebrecht

A poem of love and destruction

Photography by @joanameneses.photos

Model @Lisa Siebrecht

Agora é

"Agora é diferente
Tenho o teu nome o teu cheiro
A minha roupa de repente
ficou com o teu cheiro

Agora estamos misturados
No meio de nós já não cabe o amor
Já não arranjamos
lugar para o amor

Já não arranjamos vagar
para o amor agora
isto vai devagar
isto agora demora."

I want it so much

Lately life is being so good to me that sometimes makes me afraid.

I wonder often if I deserve all of it and I feel my body shaking with such good energy.

I know I am at the right place with the right people. 

I have all of what I always dreamed and more. So much more... and makes me feel so grateful and lucky. I see a great future in front of me and I'm so thirsthy for everyhting that will come to my path.

I want it so much. And that's why I have it. 

Photo and words by @joanameneses.photos

Under this moon

Under this moon

You kissed me softly

You whispered to my ear

You huged me strongly

and you asked me

If i wanna be yours

under this sunset

I kissed you softly

I huged you strongly

I whispered to your ears

Let me be yours.

Photo and words by @joanameneses.photos

Right now it's the perfect time!

Photography by @joanameneses.photos

Love is patient

I love how you feel I love how this is real.

"Your naked body 

should only belong to those

who fall in love

with your naked soul."

Photo by @joanameneses.photos

"Can't believe I'm running into you again.
I love to see you I can't pretend."

"In your arms, I'm inside my sweet cage"

"So why don't you lose yourself for me
What is it that your eyes don't see"

self portrait, in Azores

It's always you

Having you around it is just a feeling of pure joy and fulfilment.

I don't know any other thing that makes me feel so good and alive like you do. But I know it will be like this forever.

I'll always search for you, no matter what, because you fill my heart. And because I love you and I'm not afraid to say it.

Self portrait

Amigos e amantes

Um de nós que fuja

Last self portrait from 2018

Let go

“Do everything with a mind that lets go. Don’t accept praise or gain or anything else. If you let go a little you a will have a little peace; if you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace; if you let go completely you will have complete peace. ”

Self portrait, December in Azores

Can't hear you anymore

I've turned your music off, forever.

Self portraits, December in Azores

You never gonna change me

I was already changin'

Photography: @joanameneses.photos

Model: Lea Siebrecht

Loser

I'm a loser yes it's true
Feels like I am losing since I met you
Through the good times and the bad
Feels like I'm losing all I ever had

Check it out
Back in the days there was ways
I was moving on guns all ablaze
Dwelling on the past like I do
Still can't forgive all the abuse
That ain't the way to rise from the crib
Still running hard from this shit
Why you want to push my buttons
Making sure that I feel nothing

Do you really think you need to remind me
Every time every single second that I'm alive
Just to make yourself feel better I don't think so
I just want to do it all right
Find me a better place in this life
We bring out the worst in each other
That ain't a way to love one another

I just want to be okay
There ain't nothing wrong with that
I'm losing my life away
Losing myself and I want it back

I'm a loser yes it's true
Feels like I am losing since I met you
Through the good times and the bad
Feels like I'm losing all I ever had

Do you remember when we used to be 
So in love for eternity
All the promises that we made
All our friends said we had it made
Yeah there were times we were up 
Times we were down, world spinning around
Everybody goes through a brawl
But me and you we crash through it all

We were both lions in a cage
We were both livin' through the rage
We were still afraid
And we both had everything but didn't have it made
I'm really feeling bad that 
We both gonna have to say goodbye now
But it is is what it is baby and 
I'm going to have to take a time out

I just want to be okay
There ain't nothing wrong with that
I'm losing my life away
Losing myself and I want it back

I'm a loser yes it's true
Feels like I am losing since I met you
Through the good times and the bad
Feels like I'm losing all I ever had

I just want to be okay
There ain't nothing wrong with that
(Good-bye)
I'm losing my life away
Losing myself and I want it back

I just want to be okay
There ain't nothing wrong with that
(Good-bye)
I'm losing my life away
Losing myself and I want it back

I'm a loser yes it's true
Feels like I am losing since I met you

Photography: @joanameneses.photos

Model: Maria do Mar
Lyrics: Limp Bizkit 

"From the seed to the fruit everything is life in movement."

Photography: @joanameneses.photos

Model: Lea Siebrecht

You are gone now

I keep on seeing you in my dreams. And you keep chasing me on them.
But it's over now.

Photography: @joanameneses.photos

Model: Lea Siebrecht

Photography by: Egija Viktorija Marija Uzare

"Os passos, os sonhos, os braços e abraços

Bocas e beijos

As vidas, os planos, as voltas e os laços

Peles e cheiros"

Photography: @joanameneses.photos

Model: Lea Siebrecht

"conversa no pós serão amarrados à sedução a ver promessas ingénuas, mas tão gémeas na intenção"

"Que amor tão grande tem que ser vivido a todo instante E a cada hora que eu tou longe é um desperdício Eu só tenho 80 anos pela frente Por favor, me dá uma chance de viver"

Conselho do Bom Senso

Vou me colocar no meu lugar Vou me recompor pra evitar Aquela fadiga de outra vez Um crime que eu não vou repetir

Self portrait, June 2018 6 am Braga

Lyrics by Tuyo

Hold on

I'll show you what I know
You'll give me what I need
Not saying I'm a pro
But you'll come back for me
We go another round
Before we fall asleep
You got me on a cloud nine, baby
Feels almost like a dream
Something 'bout your body

Slowly getting back to my essence... and, oh! It feels so good.

I still have your smell on my hands

"If you don't know how to dance I'll teach you. I teach you to dance this song, just have patience and don't try to understand me always, because I do not always want to be understood. You will not always know how to decipher. I'm not decipherable. I'm going to want to be loved, do you think you can? Are you sure?

      But if it is not to stay, if it is not to love me, if it is not to lie by my side and weave a future of our own, and if it's just for today ... just for today, if not forever ... Turn off the light and close the door."

Photography: @joanameneses.photos

Model: Lea Siebrecht

"She looked up to where there should have been stars

She said "I wanna go to mars"

And this, this planet ain't ours"

"Like a roller coaster

Gets me high and low"

Photo by @joanameneses.photos

Model: Gabriela Cunha Viana

Sleep... those little slices of death

Photo by @joanameneses.photos

Model: Lea Siebrecht

"Sometimes I tell myself stories of how our worlds will meet someday and I smile."

Photo by @joanameneses.photos

Model: Lea Siebrecht

"Maria Elena used to say that only unfulfilled love can be romantic."

BLAME IT ON MY WILD HEART

Photo by @Joanameneses.photos, April 2018

Model Barbara Torres

Triste, Louca ou Má

"Triste, louca ou má

será qualificada

ela quem recusar

seguir receita tal

a receita cultural

do marido, da família.

cuida, cuida da rotina

só mesmo rejeita

bem conhecida receita

quem não sem dores

aceita que tudo deve mudar

que um homem não te define

sua casa não te define

sua carne não te define

você é seu próprio lar

ela desatinou

desatou nós

vai viver só

eu não me vejo na palavra

fêmea: alvo de caça

conformada vítima

Prefiro queimar o mapa

traçar de novo a estrada

Ver cores nas cinzas

E a vida reinventar."

Photo by @joanameneses.photos

Model: Lea Siebrecht Lyrics: Francisco, el hombre

"Reap for my soul and cleanse my spirit

Pray because I'm ready for the bloom of the sea

Peace and serenity is all that I need"

Photo by @joanameneses.photos

Model: Lea Siebrecht Lyrics: Cleo Sol

Amadurece e Apodrece

"Eu aprendi

Muita coisa que eu desaprendi

Quando você resolveu me atravessar

E me colher do galho que me deixava

Suspensa no ar

No ar

Toda pureza morreu

Quando foi que você cresceu?

Por um tempo eu te perdi

Ou foi você que se escondeu no ar?"

Photo by @joanameneses.photos

Model: Lea Siebrecht Lyrics: Tuyo

"But if you close your eyes Do you see me? Do you hear me? When you're putting on your headphones Do you feel my hands even when I'm not there 'Cause I can hear you, breathing, loud and clear Even though you're not here Even though you're not near"

Photo by @joanameneses.photos

Model: Lea Siebrecht Lyrics: Korantemaa

Photosynthesis

"There is something about this world that I should know by now
I'm doing something wrong cause this don't feel right
maybe if I cut my hair and sleep a little more
spend less time on my phone and more time alone"

Photo by @joanameneses.photos Model: Lea Siebrecht

Lyrics: Korantemaa

Badly involved

Photo by @joanameneses.photos
Model: Lea Siebrecht

Dreams

"Let’s suppose that you were able, every night, to dream any dream you wanted to dream, and you would, naturally, as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure during your sleep, and after several nights you would say «well, that was pretty great». But now let's have a surprise, let’s have a dream which isn’t under control. Well, something is gonna happen to me that I don’t know what it's gonna be. Then you would get more and more adventurous and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you would dream and, finally, you would dream where you are now.

If you awaken from this illusion and you understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death. You can feel yourself, not as a stranger in the world, not as something here on probation, not as something that has arrived here by fluke, but you can begin to feel your own existence as absolutely fundamental. What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself."

― Alan W. Watts.

Photo by @joanameneses.photos Model: Lea Siebrecht

"A história de alguém que não suporta mais a realidade. De alguém cuja consciência e expansão espiritual a deprimiu. Por isso, se isola e se esconde atrás do espelho que reflecte todas as verdades do universo."

Photo by @joanameneses.photos
Model: Gabriela Cunha Viana

Broken inside.

Photo by @joanameneses.photos

I need to go out of this world. May I?

Photos by @joanameneses.photos
Model: Lea Siebrecht