The photographer walked over 1,900 kilometres in 105 days. During his three-month journey, he only met one person who reacted negatively to him, while the rest expressed interest and were willing to talk. Initially, Iwanowski tried asking questions he had prepared in advance, but later changed his approach and increasingly began to improvise.
When asked to define home, most people pointed to their chests first, then shared their own stories. In all eight of the countries Iwanowski visited, the definition was similar – people perceived home as part of a human experience. Not many people talked about nationality, and politics was only mentioned occasionally.
Inspired by the photo above, Iwanowski created a project comprising landscapes and self-portraits. The author decided that the classic documentary format based on portraits of other people has been overused and is no longer effective. So he recorded other people’s stories instead of taking photos of them.
What were Iwanowski’s conclusions following this meditative journey? In an interview, he revealed: