I’ve followed Matu Buiatti’s work for a while now, and he’s one of those creatives who really has a thorough love of art and the life around him. He pays attention to the small details, and it shows in how he approaches every single project. We saw that earlier this year with the release of his book La Isla, a passion project that showcased his precise sensibility as a photographer.
Now, Matu is stepping away from the camera lens entirely. In his new project, WITNESS, he’s taken on the editor’s chair instead. He isn’t putting a single one of his own images inside the 240 pages. Instead, he wanted to gather a range of global voices, act as the connector, and showcase themes of desire, vulnerability, and body transformation directly through the eyes of the artists he invited.
As Matu put it in his personal essay for the book, “The good thing about screens is that they also allow us to connect with real people anywhere in the world. But at the same time, you can get trapped in a loop where time slips through your hands.”
That question, ‘what is happening to our attention in an era dominated by relentless scrolling?’ is what sets the stage for the entire publication.
A Global Archive Built on Pure Intimacy
Flip through WITNESS — Chapter 01 and you immediately notice distinct, poignant viewpoints that draw you straight into their personal worlds.
Alexander Yantyushev offers a cozy, warm scene featuring two red-haired men moving through a rural country town, lounging inside a home, and galavanting through nature. There’s a distinct catharsis that takes over as you view these stills; you feel completely immersed in a setting that feels simplified and relaxed.
Across another section, Andrés Quigüa Ramírez uses Art Belenov as his muse. We get to soak in Art’s chiseled physique oceanside as he plays in the waves, which feel replenishing as they splash against his sun-drenched skin.
Meanwhile, Milos Nasio’s black-and-white photography featuring Nicolás Pascual and Gino Pasqualini is playful and full of whimsy, capturing the raw joy of two guys spending an unbothered day at the beach.
Elsewhere in the book, contributors like Adrián Gomis Expósito, Hessel Bouma, and Maksim Pancake offer deep personal reflections alongside their visual work. Maksim brings a first-person testimony on illness, desire, and transformation alongside intimate shots taken in Bangkok, while Gomis Expósito and Bouma pair self-portraits with an essay on the body as a place to live.
As Matu explains, “WITNESS is not a global archive of human presence: it is a closed and precise archive, built from a particular point of view, that will continue changing from chapter to chapter.”
Reclaiming Queer Bodies from Digital Censorship
Where the book really hits home for me, and where it feels most vital for our community, is how it tackles the way platforms censor queer physical expression.
Toward the end of the book, you hit a full-page black statement that reads: THE GUIDELINES REMOVED OUR BODIES FROM THE SCREEN. That page is immediately followed by six silent, totally black pages. They stand in for all the people who have been erased or shadowbanned on social media for failing to fit invisible corporate standards.
Right after that black block, the book launches into an explosive final sequence by Stéphane Gizard. Gizard has a way of capturing his models in a manner that feels like an uninhibited snapshot into a private room. You feel the rawness of the muse, and there’s real grit behind his shots. When you don’t see grit, you see structural walls coming down and true vulnerability. His sequence mixes brand-new photographs with classics from the last ten years of his career, confronting what happens when intimate human forms are constantly filtered, restricted, or removed altogether.
By taking these images off the screen and locking them onto heavyweight paper, Matu and his contributors give these bodies back their permanent memory.
For the full personal essay Matu wrote on behalf of this new project and more unedited photography from WITNESS, click here to read on Gayety’s Substack.
WITNESS — Chapter 01 is available now for $300, which includes worldwide shipping from Argentina via DHL Express. Orders are expected to begin shipping Oct. 15, 2026. Any applicable import duties and taxes are the responsibility of the buyer.
You can order WITNESS — Chapter 01 directly from WITNESS Editions, and follow WITNESS Editions on Instagram to keep up with the project as it continues toward its next chapter.