Whenever I try to describe how it felt to return to the US after a couple of months living in Berlin, traveling around northern Europe, I cite Jennifer Egan:
“structural dissatisfaction: returning to circumstances that once pleased you, having experienced a more thrilling or opulent way of life, and finding that you can no longer tolerate them.”
Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad
It was months before i could resolve to make something out of the photgraphs that I took there. When I did, however, I discovered an interesting placelessness in them. Sometimes I had trouble remembering whether a specific photograph was made in Berlin, or in Prague, Rotterdam or Leipzig. The images that interested me the most were those that felt ‘foreign’ but also reflected the cultural commingling between all global cities.