Zea Pippi Lotte van der Elsken

There is a liminal place that encompasses leaving and arriving simultaneously. I whisper to remember that beginnings and endings collide, and wish to show you the ambivalence of goodbyes. "I hope the sun is shining where you are" is a photographic body of work on the displacement and longing that comes with distance. My body cannot bridge past one geographical location yet my mind and my heart long to be in two places at once. Places become fluid and intertwine when they become distant, existing through memory rather than topography. Watching things change quickly around me, I find myself in between loss and longing. The visualisation of this process is a pondering on letting go and the immateriality of place. Using my camera as a tool for keeping I search to bridge the disparate.

Moving to another country to be with my partner and pursue my path to becoming a writer has left me torn, aching and pre-nostalgic. I have said many goodbye’s over the course of my long distance relationship. Traveling back and forth between the United States and my home in The Netherlands I have documented this process of duality. In my publication consisting of two books and my hanging installation of imagery I invite the viewer into my nebulous intersection of place, time and memory.