DeAar

De Aar felt like a dead end to me. I recognised something in the pull between wanting to leave and giving up completely. A lack of opportunity, a fear of what lies beyond the familiar, and a kind of vaderlandsliefde that ties people to a place.

I set out to knock on strangers’ doors. The prize was being invited in and starting a conversation. I was curious about how people lived, what they surrounded themselves with, and what they chose to show me. Their prized possessions, pictures on the walls, things made, collected or kept.

Having grown up in a small town myself, I knew something of that dread. Wanting another life while finding comfort in the one you know. I felt affection for what I recognised, but also an uneasiness about how familiar it was.

These photographs came out of those encounters: people, interiors and landscapes in a town I found both strange and familiar.