Hoe wij waren
2024
ISBN 978-90-825555-3-0
90 pages
14x19cm
Not for sale
In the summer of 2024, I cycled back to Utrecht from the south of France, following the same route I had ridden in 2016 with my partner, Anna, the journey that marked the beginning of our relationship. After she passed away in 2023, retracing that route felt almost inevitable. Not with a clear purpose, but as a way of living with the loss and reconnecting with what had been.
Along the way, I began recreating photographs I had taken in 2016. Places where Anna had once been part of the image, I now photographed without her. Images that had once captured togetherness and happiness became quiet, empty moments. At the same time, I began to realise that this emptiness was not only painful, but also held a certain sense of calm.
The route brought back memories that had been buried deep. Small details triggered fragments of the past, but more than anything, I remembered how we had been together. Not the places themselves, but our dynamic, our way of being together, something difficult to put into words and impossible to fully share.
Back in Utrecht, it felt as though I had come full circle. What had once marked a beginning had taken on a different meaning. Not an ending, but a realisation that the story is complete, and that it lives on in memory and in images.