In 1999, I was on a peculiar assignment - to create head shots of patients in a psychiatric hospital in Athens, for the purpose of identification and social security documents. An interesting project as it makes one wonder: How is it possible to maintain one's identity when confined at an institution, sometimes for life? The work was produced in an office room at the hospital that I turned into a photo studio. Looking at their portraits I cannot help thinking that their gaze stops at my film. These people are not interested in what comes after, or who will view their portraits, they are not concerned about the transition of their image into print, or art. It is the actual event of being photographed that matters to them, their meeting with the photographer, that someone coming from the world oute there to look at them, and to see them for what they are.