At the junction where C/ Selva de Mar and Rbla. Guipúscoa meet, up until 28 February there is a mural on display with 72 photos of neighbourhood residents who took part in a photographic project by 10 people with mental disorders.

The initiative is the result of the fourth workshop run by the education section of the Fundació Photographic Social Vision, with residents from the Llar Residència Sant Martí, a local residential home for people with mental disorders. A total of 10 amateur photographers spent 4 months photographing people they met in the neighbourhood and put together the exhibition entitled ‘Gent genial’ [marvellous people].

As explained by one of the people running the project, Mireia Plans, the fact the photographers have to ask unknown people questions, and receive a yes or a no in return, is a way of relating to others which is a great help to them.

Plans adds: “We try to get them to use photography to discover their interior worlds and to create bonds”. Many of them have achieved this and now meet in front of the mural with their models and recall how they took the photos. One case is Francisco Ruiz, a resident at the home, who remembers he approached Loli “as she’s really nice”, he notes, “and she posed”.

The experience forms part of the ‘Punt de vista’ programme of workshops, which use photography as an educational tool for social inclusion and as a way of ending the stigmatisation of this collective.