Rooftop Halcyon

Fernweh (n.) | German — A longing for far-off places. An ache to travel. [Literally: farsickness]

I think this word perfectly describes how many of us are feeling these days. While we’re all stuck at home staring at the rolls of unused film, I’m sure that at one point or another we’ve thought to ourselves,

“I really should've taken a picture of that one place last month.”

or

“If only I didn’t postpone that photoshoot.”

But hey, who knows, maybe that’s just me, and everyone’s been taking pictures this whole time.

The photoshoot that yielded the images you see here happened in early February when you-know-what hadn’t hit our shores quite that hard yet.

It was precisely the kind of thing that I now miss dearly. Just looking outside, seeing how nice the weather is and calling up some friends saying, “Hey, wanna do a shoot today?” So simple.

A recent adventure I’ve set out on has been to start my own little film photography magazine/collective, where analog photographers can share their work. You can follow my work on Instagram or check out the website for my magazine — It’s new, be nice.

As a university student studying architecture, I don’t exactly have a lot of something people call “free time”. So for me, following my other passion of photography is something I really have to commit to because time and energy are paramount. 

Personally, my own feeling of fernweh doesn’t even extend to anywhere very far. There’s a cafe just a short drive away from my apartment that I really miss for some odd reason. I’ve always wanted to take some pictures there but never got around to it: “Hmm, maybe next weekend.”

I think these days of isolation and manic monotony are a staggering reminder for us to focus, take stock of the future and its objectives and not wander from that path.

‘Cause if a global crisis that changes human existence almost entirely in the span of a few weeks isn’t a wakeup call, then what is?

All images are shot on Kodak ProImage 100 with a Seagull DF 300A; Models in this set: Bianca Lee and Rayyan Mahir.

Oh, and of course, stay safe out there.