Jun 28, 2019 @ 11:15 CET

Dear Ivan,

Traveling driving chasing the sun here in Germany I can’t help but think about your Nelson image and the events that are unfolding as we speak. Being academically shaped as a political scientist in a past life, I’m deeply upset.

Yes, the cynics among us might tell you that things like this always have been the case. Yes they have. But cynicism has never solved anything, is an intellectually destructive position, and the weakest of all moral stances and attitudes.

I’m driving through a European landscape where the same started to happen in the beginning of last century. Power hungry rhetorics by political bullshitters, growing xenophobia everywhere, slowly engraining into our societies, allowing unspeakable things to happen. Have we forgotten?

I literally fail to find my sunshine today. Driving towards the edge of the clouds I see the blue sky in the distance, yet I fail to reach it. The winds are not in my favour. As I visit the remains of the former nazi concentration camp in Hinzert, i see today’s rain falling on history. Suddenly the work that I’m creating on this journey throughout Europe seems even more urgent to show.

I really hope we didn’t forget. As yours, my heart too, relentlessly pounding inside my chest as I drive home in silence. The distant hilltop trees my witness, as they must have been then.

/// #image_by_image is an ongoing conversation between photographers Ivan Sigal and Anton Kusters. @ivansigal @antonkusters on Instagram ///