Heimat - the power of a town to call home.

I am trying to keep it as least cheesy as possible—no promises, though.

I’ve struggled to identify with my hometown and my German heritage for as long as I can remember. I’ve never been happy to tell people where I come from.
Unnoticed, this struggle crept into my sense of self and became a part of my identity. It led me to continuously embark on trips, eagerly searching for a place to call my home away from home.

The issue was never the yearning to see the world or to take a break from daily life; my real issue was that I completely disregarded what I could do when I was home.
I saw it as a waste of time, as time spent less meaningfully—not even as a life worth living.
Feeling truly "alive" was reduced to a single week by the ocean each year.

When I moved out and got a job, I was able to travel more frequently, but the feeling remained the same. The more time I spent away, the stronger my urge became to leave again.

Everything shifted this spring when I returned home after two failed long-term stays on different continents—experiences that left me struggling both physically and mentally. For the first time, I felt a pull towards home, towards what Heimat really means.

Wikipedia defines Heimat as "a state of belonging, the opposite of feeling alien," and its meaning is not limited to a geographical place.
But I had always felt out of place and alien in my hometown. I suppose that stemmed from the way I had convinced myself that I would never belong—and, alongside that, my wish never to belong here.

I created a boundary, telling myself that no one else felt or thought this way, that no one would understand. I pushed away any chance of being heard. I isolated myself.
But when I returned home, struggling to connect with the people I had met during my travels, I realized that the real struggle was not about identifying with a place or with others—it was about identifying with myself.

This summer, while staying in my hometown in southern Germany, I decided to capture its essence, my childhood memories, and—most importantly—the people and places that give me love.

Shot on Fuji200