What makes a place a home? Is it something measureable? Is it related to hard facts like „the place where you live“ or „the place where you were born“? The federal central for political education in Germany tries to define „Heimat“ (German for home) in four dimensions: A location related component, a time dimension, a social and a cultural one. One alone cannot be enough to define home. At least for humans and some animals.
I was born in a city at the northern top of the Schwarzwald, southern Germany. I spent over 20 years there, knowing every street (not exactly by name, but you get the point…) and know the pretty sides of a city known to be not so beautiful. That would be defined as my home.
Every time I visit my parents-in-law inFrankfurt, I feel home as well. There are places in Frankfurt that are totally run down. I took the chance to have a walking tour through the Bahnhofsviertel with my wife and my mother-in-law. The place is amongst the most run down areas of the city. I could not resist to set up my Plaubel Peco Profia (9x12cm) and capture this retro-futuristic building.
Back home in Nürnberg, where I live, I developed the sheets. When I took out the films after washing, I had a closer look at the negatives. Thinking of Frankfurt, it felt like another home. Home number three…