Wouter van Wessel

featured in As Above, So Below

Gone When I Went

I have a complicated relation with home. 
After having emigrated to Sweden as a child I found myself unable to relate to The Netherlands when I moved back here for my studies.  As someone who was born here I had expected to feel more at ease. 
 
Upon arrival I found an empty house which used to be my childhood home, filled with photos of family memories but devoid of my own. The past had turned into something only accessible through stories. The home in my mind had been fictious, made up. With a nostalgic gaze I had caught myself romanticizing the past like we tend to do. 
What about this pretty fairytale in my mind was actually true? 
I went on a journey of inquiring what the gaps in my vague memories could have consisted of. Using my lens as the eyes of my inner child, I looked at the present, only to find that the fairytale hid within the ordinary comfort of the dynamics of a family, which had now stayed in Sweden.

Next to a photographic series with which I’m inquiring personal childhood cues, archival prints which have been attached to my car on a recent journey from The Netherlands to Sweden, bring the aftermath of my emigration into the physical realm.

Previous work

from Trickle Publication

Concrete Work

Who builds Germany? 

Most of the construction workers in Köln have a migration background. The streets you walk on, the houses you live in and the office you work at have a high chance of being built by migrants. 

Hidden behind large construction fences I am looking for their faces. The unknown faces of these hardworking people. 

The people who continue to build this city every day and night. 

Contact:

Wesselvwouter@gmail.com
@WoutervanWessel