This series was born out of a larger project that began in March 2017, when I finally considered why I shoot and where to point the camera. It got more personal. I set out to document intimacy and the ritualistic power of love. The first book I published, Lichtquellen, came out of a project that started without much thought and it was only after I looked back at thousands of negatives that I discovered a redline in retrospect. We had the release show, the solo show in Mitte, Berlin, and I felt like that was a great way to close things out, abandon that and start something else.
After all the stress of the book/show, I had to get away, so I went to visit a friend in Tokyo for three weeks, which wasn't really a vacation – whenever I have such time on my hands I end up taking photos all day. I was really reenergized by the city and wanted to come back with lots of material, but when I was back in Berlin and went through the negatives, I thought, I didn't have shit to show for three weeks of unfettered photo-taking. It lacked direction. So I was compelled to channel this energy.
I ended up taking this opportunity to attend a workshop with Anders Petersen. Like I said, I've never studied photography or taken an online course – or anything like that –, so going into a formal education environment I was very cynical. If you're interested in doing something, just do it and learn along the way – except if that something is to fly a plane, maybe. The workshop defied my expectations. Anders was such a child-like, joyous old Swedish man, who shouted at us to stop being photographers and start being curious people. It really lit a fire under me.