Der Fall Rumjanzew / The Rumyantsev Case

You don’t quickly shed the stigma of choosing a personal project for your thesis. It clings stubbornly, even in my seemingly objective self-reflection, suppressed by my imposter syndrome. The stigma – it’s so easy, after all, to take something from your own life.

Over time, I have learned to accept and understand how legitimate and by no means simple this endeavor really is.

When my family came to Germany in 1996, we were – it’s fair to say – aliens. During this phase of integration, countless fantastic anecdotes arose, which I wanted to depict through photography. I also wanted to capture our entire process of integration.

For the photography project, I dug out the old compact film camera that accompanied our family through most of this period and took all the photos with it.