Sarmad is an independent, non-profit interdisciplinary platform for research, publishing, collective thinking, and education in the fields of art, architecture and design. Based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, it is working across different disciplines from photography, visual arts and architecture to writing, performance art and film. For their fifth book Sarmad Book Five: Home four of my photos of my late neighbour Jan were selected and published.
“The person in all the photos is Jan, he used to live next to me. Since his wife died, nine years earlier, Jan put their bed in the living room because he didn’t want to sleep upstairs anymore. The bed became the central living environment for him. Everyday he visited the grave of his beloved wife and then got back to the bed. I used to walk in on him a few times a week, and we would have a chit chat and eat something together and sometimes I took some photos. I did so in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Last winter he passed away. I miss him.”
