The Ghost Voyage

"The Ghost Voyage" Millions of people commute all over the world; on a daily basis and for a big part of their life. So do I - and as many others (in a big city) I use public transport. I tried to condense an everyday feeling of long distance commuting into this little photo story (the photos are numbered). Admittedly this is an unassuming, modest subject for a photo series. However, it will ring a bell with many people. Commuting makes you rush, to or from work - and also through life. The carriages are usually packed; hardly anyone talks, most people follow their own thoughts. So do you. Your constantly changing surroundings - including the countless number of other commuters around you - fade away, become secondary, almost irrelevant. The photos have mostly been taken with a good quality snapshot camera - and are carefully 'edited by hand'. They are not meant to be documentary or depict reality. They are not about the panicky 'last minute rush‘, or a claustrophobic attack in an overcrowded carriage. They are not even „good" photos, in a traditional sense of being crisp sharp, with accurate focus, contrast, colors and lighting. The photos are deliberately imperfect, trying to give room for imagination. At a first glance, some resemble shots with a wooden camera from the end of the 19th century, when photography - same as commuting - was still very much in its infancy. The contrast of old and modern might make you think a little about the time we’re living in, and what may be called ‚normal'. The absence of people, or their distance to the viewer, emphasizes a kind of loneliness and emptiness, an absence of communication, of 'real' life. A "ghost commute" - so to say. I also believe that the sort of 'Film Noir' effect best expresses the feelings you might develop after a long day or a week, sitting in your transport … again.