Mediations Two: Have You Ever? (OUT OF PRINT)

EMPTY STRETCH

MEDIATIONS

TWO

EMPTY STRETCH

MEDIATIONS Theo Erbenius Have You Ever?

TWO

Have you ever felt like leaving everything behind, I mean to leave your life as it is and just step out into the unknown?

Looking back it feels a bit surreal, but in a way that is what I did. I quit my job, sold my apartment and broke up with my girlfriend.

With a one-way ticket in my pocket I started my travels through small and big towns in Lebanon, Egypt, Myanmar (Burma), the Philippines, Peru and Brazil guided only by my instincts and dreams.

Here I want to share some moments from the first part of my still ongoing journey that has taken me from so many different places and encounters, like a mothers heartbreaking sorrow over her loss in Iquitos, to the children’s joyful games in the shade of the teak trees in Mandalay.

I wish I could tell you I had a grand plan, but the simple truth is that I was driven by a curiosity to explore various aspects of life and an inner urge to capture these magic moments on my cameras sensor.

In a way I was never trying to tell a particular story, it was more as if I was shooting from a place inside me. The more pictures I took, the more I came to realize how often they became two-fold. How I was drawn to both a solemn and a light side at the same time. This doubleness, I find very beautiful in both movies and music, like a song with a happy melody and a sad lyric, but in the beginning I was surprised to see the same theme taking shape in my own photographic vision. Looking back on it now it feels like I was almost subconsciously looking for a way out of my own darkness while at the same time hiding from my own problems by looking outwards instead of inside myself.

I am not claiming to produce facts about the world or the people in it.

It’s more of a reflection of how I saw these situations play out in front of my eyes.

Mediations Tw o: Ha ve You Eve r? i m a ge s a n d t ext by t heo er beniu s theo er beniu s@gmail .com t heoer beniu s.com Emp ty Stre tc h first edit ion e m p t y st ret c h.wo rdp ress.com e mp t y st ret c h@gmail .com co py r ight Š 2011