After documenting the work of the tea pluckers and the whole tea production on Glenburn Tea Estate in the lower himalayas for about a week it dawned on me to portray the people who keep the estate running day by day.
Coming from all over Tibet, Nepal and India language was quite an issue, but having been around for some days we were able to make strong connections.
Dasein is a project I started during the beginning refugee crisis back in 2014. Dasein is understood as the pure "existing" on the one side, and means more at the same time, to be here, in the moment, not just to exist but also to live. So the idea behind this series of portraits was to take them in a way reminiscent of old passport mugshots representing the existence but to bring depth and personality, emotion in at the same time. Had a great time hanging out with some really nice and quite funny folks from all over Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. We had really nice conversations, I got to listen to their stories, memories, hopes, dreams and wishes. This is a first selection of portraits from this ongoing project.
Exhibitions are in the works, feel free to contact me for cooperations.
shot on Kodak TriX 400 6x7 medium format film.