SDL2025G0C1S2 | Leo’s Yawning Masterclass

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This series of photos is a true story, a chronicle of collaboration, of friction and forgiveness, of art made in the kitchen while the world outside flickers and malfunctions. One day, while Flickr itself seemed to collapse — pages refusing to load, profiles vanishing like ghosts — Leo reminded me of my true duty. Not to tags, not to categories, not even to the endless curating of SDL InnerSpace, but to him, and to you, his audience.

Leo is a master of his chosen disciplines: yawning, sleeping, dreaming, and the subtle art of reminding humans of their failings. He knows when I have neglected him, and he knows how to punish me — with silence, with indifference, with the kind of look that in Swedish we call “Om blickar kunde döda…” (“If looks could kill…”).

But Leo is also generous. Once I confessed my neglect, he forgave me, and together we staged a new sequence of yawns: the Deep Look, the Ladies and Gentlemen, and finally, the Real Thing. These are not accidents of biology. They are performances, rehearsed and perfected, like a pianist’s warm-up before the concert.

This mini-collection documents that process: the tension, the poker faces, the negotiations, and finally the masterpiece. It is a story about art, but also about family — my mother watching Turkish-dubbed Bollywood dramas with Leo, while I plead my case on the kitchen couch. It is about the absurdity of being an artist in the digital age, fighting with platforms and kidney stones, yet still finding time to honor the yawns of a cat who is, in truth, my co-author.

So here it is: a story in nine frames. Read it as comedy, as testimony, or as advertising for the only thing I can truly sell — the authenticity of presence, the testimony of Leo, and the stubborn belief that art is worth the troubles it brings.