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While studying art at UFBA (Federal University of Bahia), Ibsen Santos made a documentary about his neighbour. He simply spent one afternoon following her apparently banal and ordinary routine. Thus, his professor considered her a fascinating person and, in telling her all the compliments that the film received, Santos understood his role as an image maker. The tears of joy from his neighbour reflected how much she appreciated being heard and seen and made him realise the importance of showing others as they are. This became the conceptual axis of his production - all of us can inherently be a complex, peculiar figure, and worthy of the spotlight. In this way, Santos’s work can be compared to the documental performance piece ‘Art Is...’ by American artist and critic Lorraine O'Grady, presented at the 1983 African-American Day Parade, in which intrigued spectators, who summarily saw themselves making art, or having art made from them, were invited to participate by framing themselves within golden frames. Even before his studies, photography emerged for Santos as an extension of his remarkable and vivid childhood. Between alleys, dirty streets and block walls, only the tastiest laughter could be heard in Lobato, a railway suburb of Salvador, Bahia where he grew up and lives to this day. His work channels his existence as a black gay man who lives in this place, discovering and revealing the world for those who do not know the outskirts. "People here have a magic and a vivacity that I've never encountered anywhere else and it's that I need to praise," he says.