Williamsburg

lifenew yorkpersonalphotographyspiritualitythoughtsUncategorized

Jan 6

I shot another project during the summer that I called the “Williamsburg Project”. Industrial areas always mesmerized me. While I’m writing this I’m wondering why that is the case?From age 6 to 12 I was living in the German Alps and loved it. When I went back to Pfronten the little village I used to live in later in life after traveling the world I had to admit that this part of Germany is one of the most beautiful paces I’ve ever been to. As I child I loved the mountains, I loved to be outside, I loved to play in the woods and to climb trees and the two things I hated most in life were visiting big cities and to shop for cloths.When I was 12 my mother left my father and my world literally collapsed. My mother had a boyfriend and I ended up staying with them. I still remember the moment I arrived at their apartment the first time. They were living in the industrial area of a small town close to Heidelberg. I got out of the car and there was a depot for garbage trucks right next to the house, a place where they sold cars across the street and a construction company in the basement. After living in New York for 15 years this sounds like a very cozy place but for a child that loved nature, loved being out hiking and was used to look at mountain range looking out of his living room window it seemed like hell on earth. My mother came out of the house, saw my face and asked me if I wanted her to bring me back to my fathers house and I said no I’m o.k.. To this day I don’t know why I said that because I was far from being o.k..I never liked to live there but what I did like and what is really cool about industrial areas are weekends. On weekends these areas are completely abandoned. There is nothing going on and then there is so much to discover. All these amazing things human beings build and then neglect, all that it is so interesting to me. What I still remember about this otherwise emotional very difficult time is that I was roaming the streets on weekends discovering all kinds of things. It was so quiet on those days what reminded me on the Alps, the world that I had loved so much but had lost.And as back then in 1983 I took out my bike this summer and biked around in the industrial area behind my building in Williamsburg. Only on weekends of course and as back then I loved the peace and quiet. It was wonderful and when I saw something interesting I stopped and took a picture of it. I spent many hours and many Sundays like that and I had no idea why. Well, I guess I just found out! :-)