Left Behind

“Left Behind” is a story about returning. It’s about confronting a repressed past, and an uncontrollable desire to escape, a search for a different kind of life. A life that may not even exist, anywhere. When I'm far away and distanced from my past, I can value what I'm no longer part of. I return, and I see what before was hidden in the dark shadows of my youth. I admire the beauty of the landscape, the calm, the romantic light and the endless bright summer nights. But there are two sides of my present experience. The sound of the river’s flowing stream or the birds singing will never drown out the endlessly thoughts spinning in my head. I am still lost. I walk my old paths as I’m searching for answers for the scars in a childhood that formed who I am today. I photograph my brother growing up and my father who never will. I photograph the people that still live here and the animals I’ve always felt more close to. I use photography to help understand my surroundings and myself. The story takes place in my childhood landscape in the north of Sweden. “Left Behind” is a story about Sweden from my perspective today. - Isabella Ståhl