# Susanne Reuling > Photographer & Storyteller | Stories in Light ## Posts - [](https://susannereuling.com/geluksmomenten/): Just Like You Why do we so often focus on what sets us apart, instead of what connects us?This question has been on my mind for years. Differences are quickly seen as negative, creating distance, fear, or even discrimination. With my photo series Just Like You, I want to offer another perspective. Photography allows me to bring people closer together and reveal how much we truly share. Just Like You is an ongoing photography project that I carry out in different countries. Each series centers on one universal theme: what makes people happy? My mission With this series, I aim to […] - [Opaatje Peru blauw](https://susannereuling.com/opaatje-peru-blauw/) - [Pucara camomile](https://susannereuling.com/test-7/) - [Raffy water](https://susannereuling.com/test-6/) - [Yara Tyche](https://susannereuling.com/test-5/) - [Pucara voeten in zand](https://susannereuling.com/test-4/) - [Pucara schapen](https://susannereuling.com/test-3/) - [Pucara portret oude man](https://susannereuling.com/test-2/) - [Tio luiz](https://susannereuling.com/test/) - [](https://susannereuling.com/402-2/) ## Pages - [Recognition](https://susannereuling.com/recognition/): AWARDS & SELECTIONS SELECTED EXHIBITIONS SELECTED PUBLICATIONS - [Episode 15](https://susannereuling.com/episode-15/): Long before she learned to read,she learnedto read the river. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 15: Bianca Long before she learned to read,she learnedto read the river. Bianca (11) grows up deep in the Pantanal, where the river is the roadand nature her world. A ripple on the water holds no secrets for her. She can tell tomorrow’s weather by the wind, and she knows every sound the forest carries. Every school day begins with the school boat. Forty minutes later,she is finallywith her friends. By the time she’s home, the river becomes her playground. She fishes there. She swims […] - [Episode 14](https://susannereuling.com/episode-14/): A woman who didn’t return to her past. But returned to build her future. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 14: Rose Sometimes you only realize how important your roots arewhen life shakes the tree. Meeting Rose (35) showed me just how true that can be. Like so many children growing up in the Pantanal, she left for the city at a young age. Far from her family. Not because she wanted to.But because school ended here. There, she built a life.Became a mother. Until she found herself on her own. She came back. Back to the river. Back to her […] - [Episode 13](https://susannereuling.com/episode-13/): Happiness isn’t something you’re given. It’s something you create. By seeing what you already have. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 13: Olinfa What if nature wasn’t a backdrop,but a home? Deep in the world’s largest wetland,I meet Olinfa (54). Every morning she walks to the river.Caimans at her feet. Marsh birds as her morning orchestra. She laughs. And sings. In a place many would seeas the end of the world. Where nature can be as beautifulas it is unforgiving. With a thousand reasons to leave. But not for Olinfa. “Happiness isn’t something you’re given,” she says. “It’s something you create. […] - [Episode 12](https://susannereuling.com/episode-12/): For generations, this place has taught peoplethat caring matters more than owning. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 12: Artur. “Esperança.” Hope. That is the name of the farm where Artur (68) welcomes me. A name that has been passed down here for generations. It was his great-great-grandfatherwho bought the land in a timewhen slavery was still deeply rooted in Brazil. But he was far ahead of his time. He freed every enslaved person who came with the estate. Later, he married one of them. A decision that came at a price.He died in prison. And yet, nearly two hundred years […] - [Episode 11](https://susannereuling.com/episode-11/): When I see them together behind the counter, I understand what it meansto need only half a word. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 11: Gustavo. What would your life look likeif your world slowly grew dark? Gustavo was fourteen when doctors told him he would slowly lose his sight. For a long time, he tried to hide it. “People got upset when I didn’t shake their hand,” he tells me. “But I simply couldn’t see it.” He became quieter.Withdrew from life.Working became impossible. Every morning brought the same struggle. During confession at church, Gustavo admitted for the first time that […] - [Episode 10](https://susannereuling.com/episode-10/): Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 10: João. Coming soon. - [Episode 9](https://susannereuling.com/episode-9/): Living with less slowly became a way of life. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 9: Marcos. “Easy Go,” I readon the small sailboatwhere Marcos has lived for the past seven years. It’s more than a name.It’s how he lives. After his divorce, he left Brazil behind, he tells me. Over time, contact with his children faded. Disappointed in the world,and in the people around him,he left for Japan — the land of his ancestors. For years, he traveled the world.Living with less slowly became a way of life. And yet —after all those years,he came back to Brazil. But settling […] - [Episode 8](https://susannereuling.com/episode-8/): And then I realize —that even here,where simplicity still lives,one thinghas made its way in. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 8: Ramiro. “Enough is a blessing,” my grandfather used to say. At Ramiro’s (67), I understand why. Sitting at his kitchen table,it feels as if time herestood still a hundred years ago. No chair to sink into.No lamp to soften the room.No window to let in the light. I lift my feetfor the macawsthat eat from the pan beside me. Like his home,Ramiro is a man of little. Words, mostly. As a child,the caves of Terra Ronca were his playground. […] - [Episode 7](https://susannereuling.com/episode-7/): For her,every dream that comes truewill be a victory. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 7: Ana Vitória. “Can you teach me how to swim?” she asks as we walk toward the river. She doesn’t know us,yet walks straight up to us,full of questions. Ana Vitória is twelve. She has never learned how to swim. Her father works two jobs.Her mother takes care of the home. And Ana helps. As the eldest daughter in a family of seven, she is needed at home. She cooks, runs errands,changes diapers,and looks after her younger brothers and sisters. There is no timethat is simply […] - [Episode 6](https://susannereuling.com/episode-6/): A manwho once had much —and in the end lost even more. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 6: Lourival. When I walk through the streets of Lençóis,he is always there. On the pavement in front of his small house. Rolling a cigarette,coughing heavily. For days I keep walking past him, unsure,until one day I sit down beside him. Lourival is 68. His face tells a different story. He tells me about his life as a miner.A time when money was never a problem. “I spent it as quickly as it came in,” he says, laughing. On whisky.On taxis.On adventures. But […] - [Episode 5](https://susannereuling.com/episode-5/): “Tia,” he calls her.Not by blood,but by heart . Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 5: Enzo. “Do you want to become a guide one day?” I ask him. “A biologist,” he says. It’s his eyes that catch my attention. Long lashes, beautifully curled —but eyes that have seen far too much for his age. He lost his mother when he was still young.A house without her warmth. When he was twelve, his father fell ill and could no longer take care of him. No one to wish you goodnight.No one to show you the way. Life forced himto figure it […] - [Episode 4](https://susannereuling.com/episode-4/): A womanwho has risen more timesthan life has knocked her down. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 4: Julinda. When I look out the window early in the morning, one neighbor always catches my eye. Whistling, singing, talking loudly with those around her, Julinda (82) sits on the doorstep every day in front of her green-painted workers’ house. Her skin marked by a life that hasn’t been easy.Her mouth — all her teeth long gone. Sitting beside her,she tells me about the many hardships she has faced. A childhood spent working the land.Planting and harvesting, day in, day out, in the […] - [Episode 3](https://susannereuling.com/episode-3/): A story about fighting for a place where life can still remain simple. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 3: Elçon I meet Elçon on the beach of Lençóis. On the place where his grandmother once gave birth to eleven children. They lived simply.From what the land and the sea provided. But life was hard, and eventually the family moved to the city. Two generations later, Elçon returned. After a long legal battle, he was able to reclaim the land that once belonged to his family. Along many beaches in Brazil, high-rise apartments and luxury resorts are rising. But here, in […] - [Episode 2](https://susannereuling.com/episode-2/): Her family calls her a guerreira.A warrior. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 2: Ãdxuara “Pink.”That is what her name means in the language of her people, the Pataxó. An Indigenous community whose history goes back long before the Portuguese arrived in Brazil. But as gentle as her name sounds, the life of thirteen-year-old Ãdxuara has not been. I meet her in the village where she has lived with her family for the past ten years, on the edge of Cumuruxatiba. Hard-won land. For five centuries, the Pataxó have continued to resist.For their land.For the right to remain there. She tells […] - [Episode 1](https://susannereuling.com/episode-1/): You can lose your job.But not who you are. Stories in Light – Brazil. Episode 1: Gugu. As a little boy, his godfather gave him the nickname Gugu.Since then, no one has ever called him anything else. I met Everson (42) on the Costa Dourada in Bahia, Brazil. For years he worked as a freshwater fisherman on the Rio Doce. His life revolved around the river.That’s where he earned his living.Where he found freedom.Where he belonged. Until November 5, 2015. That day, the Mariana dam collapsed. Toxic mining waste flooded into the Rio Doce, causing the largest environmental disaster in Brazil’s […] - [About](https://susannereuling.com/about/): I’m a photographer and storyteller based in the Netherlands.I’ve always been drawn to people — to who they are beneath what is visible.Through my photographs, I search for what connects us beyond place, background or circumstance. My work begins with listening closely to someone’s story. From that, I construct an image — grounded in their reality, but shaped through my eye. I never observe from a distance. I work in proximity. Through light and composition, I shape the image around what is already there. It’s not something I simply capture — it’s something we shape together. Light plays a central role […] - [Contact](https://susannereuling.com/contact/): Every story deserves to be seen. Whether it’s yours, a loved one’s, or someone you want to honour — I’d love to help you tell it. Get in touch, and let’s bring your story into the light! Available work Feel drawn to a piece? A small selection of works is available upon request. info@susannereuling.com susanne_reuling susanne-reuling - [Stories in Light](https://susannereuling.com/stories-in-light/) - [Home](https://susannereuling.com/) ## Optional - [Agent (MCP protocol)](websites-agents.hostinger.com/susannereuling.com/mcp) [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)