Solitude is Bliss

analog photography
2021

Presented to the curators of BredaPhoto’s International Talent Program

Selected images on website

I have found that loneliness is very stubborn. Like mold, it lives in places you can't really reach. It seeps through the small cracks of the mind, where it grows, saturating the skull slowly and unnoticed. It's almost like it has always been there, blurring the lines between what is and what grows.

Until it takes you over, creating a foggy cast before your eyes, imploding your stomach, sucking up all particles around you. It slows down the passage of time with which the earth moves, second after second. The body is now an empty vessel, cutting off all connections to people and space, shaping an existence consisting of only you and the hazy reality that makes you feel ill at ease. You refrain from calling for help, unable to find the words to describe the distressed state in which you seem to be trapped.

During Covid-19, more and more people experienced the ways in which loneliness shifts our perception of the world around us. The quiet streets during lockdown mirrored the desolation felt inside. Solitude is Bliss is a reminiscence of these lonesome days and evokes a sense of solidarity in the ways humans experience emotion, visualising feelings that are often hard to put into words. By doing so, I wish to encourage a more transparent dialogue about these feelings, creating a future where our individual hardships can be transferred to a more collective one.