The photo is an allegory of the farewell to the world of childhood. This is the moment of the arrival of inevitable maturity, including the acceptance of the transience of the world around us and the responsibility that comes with it.
Images of nature from my childhood include a hedgehog running across the road, a flock of sparrows bathing in a puddle, the sound of bees flying in the meadow. It is hard to believe that the world we remember is now disappearing before our eyes. Nature is losing out to the spread of human civilisation. In a generation, you can see the changes even in your immediate neighbourhood.
Images of nature from my childhood include a hedgehog running across the road, a flock of sparrows bathing in a puddle, the sound of bees flying in the meadow. It is hard to believe that the world we remember is now disappearing before our eyes. Nature is losing out to the spread of human civilisation. In a generation, you can see the changes even in your immediate neighbourhood.
We are trying in various ways to stop this process, but does it make sense? Isn’t trying to stop it at all costs just slowing it down? Perhaps the price of evolution is the need to say goodbye to the world as we know it. Any measure that could halt the process would require us to make sacrifices, but can we imagine travelling without planes? Shopping restrictions? A life without plastic? Are attempts to counteract change doomed to failure? Are we able to change?
Finally, can we allow this balloon to fly away?
2010, photography. Limited edition 9/10 + 2AP. Print on the cotton Fine Art paper, 1300×97 mm (1100×770 mm without borders)
