How I See You

Photographer Tami Aftab captures the raw beauty of an intimate and true friendship.

There is nothing more beautiful than really being seen by those closest to you. That is the experience and feeling that photographer Tami Aftab wanted to explore in her latest project How I See You.

Gathering together three sets of friends, Tami invited the friends to describe each other; talking about their personalities, what they liked, what moved them and what they meant to each other. Taking those descriptions Tami and her team set about turning their words into visuals.

How I See You is a story of friendship and identity. It’s about the beauty of platonic love that has the power to help us see ourselves through the eyes of those we’re closest to.

Hody  

Being truly seen by my closest friends is the feeling of family and love - lots of care and joy. My closest friends are my chosen family. I can be my true myself when I’m around them, I don’t need to hide behind a façade like I feel I do when I first meet people.

Coming from a traditional Hong Kong, Chinese family, my parents often act as a ruler figure, so I don’t always feel comfortable sharing sad news with them. I always just tell them the happy stuff only so that they don’t worry about me. If I didn’t have my closest friends to vent my thoughts to I think I’d be in a very bad head space. I feel very grateful and blessed that I have them

Chizoba

 Friendship is very important to me! It really helps with my mental health. Getting to know my friends and loving them has given me the opportunity to get to know myself better and experience life in a different way. I feel assured like I’m my complete self when I am with close friends. They brighten my mood even when I’m feeling sad.

Antonella & Tatiana

Antonella

Tatiana is one of those girls who are outgoing, focused on what she wants, cheerful, intelligent and always ready to help others. She helped me out when I first arrived in London!

Friendship with her is beautiful because we have many similar things in common. We joke and see ourselves as twins, we can chat all day and through those conversations I know that I have found a faithful and sincere friend  .

Tatiana  

Antonella is a super loving, friendly and super happy person, she has an energy that is contagious and that makes anyone around her feel very good. Simply a great person who I feel very fortunate to have met and who I hope to continue counting on.

  The way Antonella described me makes me feel very happy and capable of the challenges of life. I have come to realize that sometimes I need to see the words of someone who really knows me well to realize who I am and project the person that I want to be.

Honor & Olive

Honor

Olive is a short skirt wearing, eyeliner master, ethereal fairy, fellow sensitive chin, 70s chic with puppy dog eyes.

To me, she is the most  wonderful neighbour, the best travel accomplice, an amazing bunny baby sitter and agony aunt, as we give each other dodgy boy advice. She’s a hilarious friend who never fails to make me laugh.

 Olive  

Throughout the pandemic, the presence of my community has been important like never before. It’s been great to have a neighbour like Honor to brighten my day whenever I see her. During the first lockdown, she was the only person outside of my household that I saw for months because we kept running into each other at the supermarket

Honor’s description of me is very flattering. I spend a lot of time wondering how I am perceived by the people around me so it’s sweet to have it in writing. Long live the puppy dog eyes!