The public Tear Archive presents a small, curated selection of emotional tears from 250+ tears collected and photographed since the project began. Each published tear is connected to a person, a moment and a story that can be shared.
Some tears and personal stories remain private at the participant’s request.
An ongoing photography collection, with personal stories at its heart.
In the first days after the birth of a first child, emotions often arrive all at once. Joy, tenderness, exhaustion and the growing realization that life has quietly changed begin to settle into even the smallest moments. This tear was collected during that fragile first week, at the moment of saying goodbye to the maternity […]
The tear came from a moment of gratitude — from realizing how precious it is simply to wake up, to be alive, and to share life with the people who are still here. Alongside that gratitude came memories of loved ones who are no longer present. Joy and nostalgia met in the same moment: appreciation […]
Some memories remain close long after a relationship has changed or ended. Beautiful and painful moments continue to surface, making it difficult to know where the past stops and the present begins. At the same time, new love has found its place. This tear came from trying to hold both realities at once — missing […]
The tear came during one of the darkest periods of life, when everything seemed to be falling apart and there was little to hold on to except the feeling of moving through it. But alongside that darkness, something new had already begun to emerge. Like the first signs of spring, this tear also marked a […]
One year after losing something deeply loved, the anniversary brought its absence back into focus. Time had moved forward, but the meaning of what was gone had remained. The tear came from that quiet return — from remembering with tenderness rather than shock, and feeling how something can be lost while still continuing to hold […]
The tear came from loving someone deeply while also reaching the point of having to let go. The thought of leaving had returned many times, carrying doubt, hope and the difficulty of walking away from something that still mattered. This time felt different. The love was still there, but so was the sense that the […]
A name on a screen can bring someone back for a moment. A message, a photograph or an old notification suddenly makes the past feel unexpectedly close, as if time has briefly folded in on itself. This tear came from one of those moments — from the strange feeling that someone was still there, followed […]
The tear came from reflecting on a life shaped by love, companionship, betrayal and loss. Thinking about Jesus as a child, the people who walked beside him, and the days leading to his crucifixion brought those human experiences close. What remained was the weight of that journey — growing up, being loved, being followed, being […]
The tear came from seeing people forced to live in conditions no one should have to endure. The suffering felt overwhelming, made harder by the knowledge that so much of it was beyond one person’s control. Sadness and helplessness came together in that moment — caring deeply, wanting things to be different, and not knowing […]
Five years later, the memory of that period still returned with force. The pandemic had changed daily life for everyone, but within that larger silence it also held a personal loss — one that remained tied to remembrance, absence and the rituals of memorial. This tear came from that anniversary. It marked the way grief […]
The tear came during a moment when emotions that had been building beneath the surface suddenly became impossible to contain. In a public place, there was nowhere to withdraw and little choice but to let the moment happen. What had been held together privately became visible. The tear marked that sudden release — the vulnerability […]
Five years later, the date still carried the weight of that time. Memories of the Covid period returned together with the loss of someone close, bringing back a time marked by uncertainty, distance and grief. This tear came from that return. It marked how loss can remain present long after the moment itself has passed […]
The disappearance of a close friend began with uncertainty and ended in loss. In the days that followed, grief found its way into a collaboration built around tears, memory and music. The tears were collected and crystallized under the microscope, becoming part of a work created in his memory. What began as a response to […]
This tear was collected in the aftermath of a difficult moment between two people who had grown close, but were also struggling to find their way back to one another. Anger, frustration and sadness had built up, making clear how heavy a relationship can feel when connection becomes harder to hold on to. At the […]
The tear came during a period of illness and pain, when life was forced to slow down. That pause created time to look back, reflect and revisit ideas and notes that had been left behind. What began as a difficult period gradually opened a new direction. Old thoughts became a source of fresh inspiration, turning […]
Some moments are difficult to take in while they are happening. A single realization can suddenly make the future feel bigger, closer and completely different from what it was only moments before. The tears appeared in that space between disbelief and joy. Two people looked at each other and understood that something new had begun […]
The tears came during a moment of pressure, when different kinds of loss seemed to meet at once. There was grief for a mother, but also the feeling that part of one’s own identity had disappeared with her. Alongside that loss was another absence: the love and closeness that was still deeply missed. The tear […]
Near the end of her life, after a long illness, there was little left that could be changed. What remained was being together — in a moment where words had become less important than presence. Shortly before she passed away, her family was able to collect one of her final tears. A fleeting drop became […]
The tear came from frustration — from caring deeply about work that can shape the lives of others, and seeing how difficult it can be to protect its quality when decisions around it feel wrong. Beneath that frustration was determination. The struggle was difficult because the stakes felt larger than the present moment: doing the […]
The tear came during a difficult period in life, when everything felt heavier than usual and emotions were close to the surface. It became a small release — a moment to let some of that sadness out when carrying it all had become too much.
A fictional story can still touch something completely real. For a while, the characters, their losses and their emotions became close enough to feel personal. The tear came while watching a sad film, when the distance between the screen and the viewer briefly disappeared. Nothing had happened in real life, yet the emotion was genuine […]
This tear was collected from a very young child, in one of those moments when upset can be intense and short-lived at the same time. Held safely in the arms of her mothers, she cried with all the seriousness of childhood — only for the moment to begin changing almost immediately. As the tears were […]
Sometimes emotion arrives before there are words for it. A feeling can build quietly until it becomes too large to contain, even when it is difficult to explain exactly where it came from. This tear came from one of those moments — when emotion simply found its way out. It carries no single story, but […]
Sometimes a loss begins before anything has actually ended. When the future starts to feel unavoidable, goodbye can quietly enter the present long before the final moment arrives. This tear came from that anticipation — from imagining a world in which someone who had always been there soon might not be. Love, fear and helplessness […]
The loss of her mother changed the way familiar spaces felt. Home became part of the grieving process — a place where absence could be felt, but where memories and connection could also remain present. This tear came from that search for a way to live with loss. Grief slowly found its place in the […]
For a long time, illness made the future uncertain. Claudia and her husband moved through that period together, carrying the fear, exhaustion and hope that came with not knowing what would happen next. This tear was collected when that uncertainty began to loosen its grip. It became a marker of what they had endured together, […]
The tear came from looking back at everything already endured. Sadness and relief existed side by side — the weight of what had happened, and the realization that surviving it had changed what there was left to fear. Pride grew from that same history. So did a kind of fierceness: the feeling of having been […]
A recording had quietly preserved the final moments before their first child was born. Years later, the family listened to it together for the first time, hearing voices and sounds from a day that had long since become part of their shared history. The tears came from hearing that beginning again. What had been stored […]
Sometimes moving forward means leaving behind more than a situation. It can also mean letting go of a version of yourself — the one that stayed open and vulnerable for as long as it could. This tear marks that turning point: the moment self-protection became more important than holding on. Not out of indifference, but […]
The tear came from heartbreak — from the moment when something deeply felt could no longer be held together in the same way. There were no simple words for it. Only the weight of losing something that had mattered, and the pain of having to carry that absence forward.
A familiar scene and a few notes of music were enough to open a memory that had been quiet for years. Suddenly, childhood felt close again — along with the life once shared with her parents. The tear came from that unexpected return. For a brief moment, something that belonged to the past became vivid […]