Einsamkeit
In German “Einsamkeit” means “solitude”, or “loneliness”.
This small personal project is a visual study reflecting on solitude, on what it means, what it brings, and how it feels. Solitude can be overwhelming, but it can be a gift at times, however hard it is sometimes to see its beauty.
We, humans, are often scared to be alone, because this will inevitably force us to meet ourselves and face our own fears and weaknesses. We, humans, are social beings, and we need other people in our lives to feel valued, loved, important, and safe. It is hard to stand alone. It is hard to face this world by yourself. But at the end of the day, we are always alone. We come to this world alone, and when the time to leave this world comes, we are alone again. “Aloneness” is so natural yet never really desirable.
Solitude can help us find ourselves. Solitude can produce great ideas. But solitude can also breathe life into monsters. Solitude is ambivalent.
“Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous - to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the opposite: to the perverse, the illicit, the absurd” (Thomas Mann, Death in Venice).
Shot in Toronto, ON, in 2021.