With an interest in documentary photography and photojournalism, much of my practice is focused on themes of immigration, loneliness, death, and the traces of human absence. When the sea grows quiet explores our perception upon the reality we experience, questioning what is real and the subjectivity of our lived experience by putting myself in the role of a fisherman to tell a story about myself. Each being experiences reality in a unique way. Some aspects of it coincide with other realities and so, a standarized idea of normality emerges. We deny everything that is not universally accepted as normal or real, therefore we deny our own selves. My project is collapsing the traditional divide between author and subject, the real and the imaginary, challenging entrenched binaries to reveal a world of my own by curating a visually accepted series that unravels a non-rational story for the audience. Using AI, I am constructing an alternative way of seeing the world in order to create a layered understanding of our perception of the ‘reality’.
Stephen is a refugee from Uganda. He moved to Cologne in 2016 and he found a way to try to fill the gaps of an absent family by bringing the feeling of home through traditional food, music, and memories, but also by having a goal in mind: returning home. The status of a refugee gives you the opportunity to travel to any country in the world, except for your home country, and most refugees left their families behind for a better life, like Stephen.
My project explores the practices of immigrants and refugees to remember their home and family to physical things and rituals. Embarking myself on a journey through the unknown: my project explores how immigrants want to remember their country. Some want to forget everything about it, along with their identity; others have a charm reminding them of that place, persona, and the family they had left. Using the city of Cologne as an international common ground, I research the traces of familiar memories of immigrants from an immigrant’s perception and understanding: myself.
