"I had no expectations. I went in because I simply felt I had to. I felt calmness. When I looked around, everything hurt me. I cried. I was fascinated – by the tears and beyond them. I looked around again and again, and felt selfish."

"The spotlight above me was staring in my eyes, it was bright and sharp, and made me feel oppressed, forced, as if it was insolently pushing my head and making me do something. I looked at the photos more carefully and felt the sadness and loneliness in them… The night I took this photo, I had hurt someone I love. It made me think about intimacy, about the way people express their sorrow, about how vision is blurred through water, how you cut yourself off from the world in an attempt to make sense."

"People are constantly taking selfies. I don’t like taking selfies – it seems very frustrating to me to fit myself into a particular instant and state, into an image I like. Here, the role of the photographer is very important and I certainly didn’t expect this would be me. Taking a selfie and, what’s more, when you’re sad and crying, is, to my mind, like pulling a trigger in your face – people wouldn’t take photos of themselves at such moments. • When I went in, I was shocked-saddened-broke into tears, and then I instinctively started arranging my hair, trying to make myself look good for a selfie… Then I gave up and simply took a shot. This made me think about how many moments remain unappreciated, even the sad ones, even the black-and-white ones… A black box with emotions… They rarely come out in the open, only when the plane crashes. At the same time, you are faced with portraits of another person who may have felt the same way, and you realize you aren’t alone, this gives you courage to press the button and, “To hell with it!”, to take a photo of yourself even with tears in the eyes."

"One of the photos brought tears to my eyes. I felt compassion and I felt another’s pain."

"I felt rather confused. I was thinking of my girlfriend, who was after me. I couldn’t wait to see her reaction, especially after some of the things we went through last week. I love her."

"I felt fury slowly rising within me. Fury arising from a feeling of some impossibility. Reflections on absence and on the impossibility of attaining what you need. Reflections on intimacy. When I came out of the Box, I met your wide smile. It was like a dream in which I can’t figure out how someone can look so radically different in just a few seconds."

"It made me think about the entire range of emotions and try to understand what state had provoked them, and why."

"When I saw your genuine sadness, I felt you were somehow close to me, I felt that I had somehow found my way into your soul. I was very impressed by the photo with the dog. It didn’t look like you were crying from sorrow, but from the feeling that time would take away everything from you. I felt real, I felt lost."

"It made me think about how we pose and do our best to wear masks when it comes to our own image. By habit, when I pointed the camera at my face I put on an expression that would make me look more attractive. I tried to find the proper angle that would make me look good. I was thinking of taking several shots. Then I realized what I was doing, I stopped posing for the camera, I looked at it and photographed myself. Whatever has come out, that’s it."

"I felt the great emotional part of this project. I felt the realness, the truth that the artist shows inside herself, and is asking other people to find this place inside themselves. I felt that it is about unfolding the inside out, and being real enough to express it. It made me think about being myself in front of a camera, and in a way in front of my self."

"It made me think about my life and my dreams, about wanting to fight to be happy, and about how something bad is always followed by something good… After every black-and-white photo, colours and happiness come in the next one."

"When I saw the tears flowing down the girl’s face, I was overwhelmed by a sadness I couldn’t explain. I felt it even though I didn’t know what caused it. I tried to figure out whether it had anything to do with the dog, because it reminded me of my dog. I love her very much and I imagined the moment she must pass away. This made me feel even sadder."

"I felt sad at some points and calm at others. These photos made me think and try to figure out exactly what they are about. To my mind, they are about the loss of a loved one or of the dog that’s in some of them… We must appreciate every minute of our lives because we’re here today and gone tomorrow."

"In an instant, I passed through many eyes, fates, and their emotions. It’s difficult to bring out so many different emotions, which I can compare to the four seasons, from so many people in a single installation."

"It made me think about how vulnerable we people are, about how many people I may have hurt in my life and how many people have hurt me! Perhaps that’s why my photo looks as if I’m trying to hide in a shadow, as if I’m afraid to reveal myself to people because they may hurt me."

"The experience made me feel sad, yet calm. I felt at ease in the room. Relaxed."

"It makes me think that plain selfies are probably a result of fast consumption, but this felt more like an intimate portrait experience than a selfie."

"I felt sadness and warmth. I was thinking about the pain of losing a loved one… but behind this sadness there are actually millions of happy moments that have built this love. And although we’re losing the physical, the soul will always be with us."

"The eyes of the girl in the photos were so real and unselfconscious… that I decided against posing for photos, as usual. I managed to isolate myself from the world – in the Black Box, it was just me and the camera."

"Smartphones devalue photography, on the one hand, but on the other they make it accessible to people. The Black Box Project makes us look at things through a different lens… literally and figuratively!"

"I felt a mix of emotions: from the appearance of a smile on my face to sadness and compassion."

"I shut myself out from everything. Although I was just a few steps away from the milling crowds, I managed to get into another state of mind. The most important things are those that happen within us."

"Inside the Box there was a strange smell and the ambiance was very interesting. I want to go there again."

"Тhe room itself caught my attention, and the sudden light."

"There was a strong energy. Many different emotions in a short space of time. When I was taking my photo, I felt a mixture of sad and happy. Something like Chinese sweet and sour sauce."