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Note · 7 June 2026

[ku] 14/26 Art

From Hidden Places to Heimat.

Urban facade in cool stillness, series Hidden Places

From the series Hidden Places · Roman Thomas

Number
J14 / 14/26
Section
Art
Date
7 June 2026

Engaging with outer space was a first step. Over time, my gaze has shifted inward.

The outer space

In Hidden Places I work with urban spaces that seem unambiguous at first glance. Architecture, light and structure point to something apparently familiar. At the same time, a distance arises that makes these places appear removed from the world. The images move between recognizability and irritation. They show not only a place but a state in which reality and imagination flow into each other.

This work on outer space was a first step for me.

Deserted urban space with a reflection, series Hidden Places
A place that appears removed from the world.

The shift inward

Over time, my gaze has increasingly turned inward. The question of what we see became the question of how we see. Bound up with this is a growing interest in what cannot be clearly grasped, in the region between perception and sensation.

The question of what we see became the question of how we see.

Heimat

In Heimat I deliberately let go of the stability of the visible. Through the movement of the camera during the exposure, the structures begin to flow. I give up part of the control and allow the image to change in the process. Landscape then no longer appears as a fixed place but as an open weave in which forms dissolve, condense and connect anew.

Heimat, for me, is not a geographical point but an inner state. Familiarity, but also loss. Closeness and distance at once. Both series are joined by the same question, how space becomes an inner experience. Hidden Places takes its starting point in the outside world; Heimat arises entirely from this inner movement.

Flowing, dissolved landscape, movement during the exposure, series Heimat
From the series Heimat.
Next entry
J13
07.06.26 · Art
Not Places, but States.
I work with photography on the question of how reality comes into being in the act of seeing. My pictures do not show places, they make states tangible.