Between Near and Far
Born and raised in Republic of Macedonia, I came to United States as a teenager. Since I moved, I have always felt that I’ve had two homes. Two lives, but one biography. Being split between two different places, there always has been a tension between the old and the new, the familiar and unfamiliar, belonging and being an outsider.
The year 2014 marked an important midpoint in my life. The number of years I have lived in the US equaled to the number of years I have lived in my native Macedonia before I moved. This realization made me examine my identity and how location connects to memory, nostalgia and the sense of belonging. As part of my creative process, I conducted geographical research and I found out that the exact midpoint between my hometown in Macedonia and my home in the US is the town of Grindavík in Iceland. After finding this, I made a pilgrimage to Iceland - the place that geographically symbolizes my internal duality. These photographs are part of my series “Between Near and Far” produced in Iceland. Photographed in the place that is the geographical symbol of my dual identity, they combine mythological stories about destiny, loss, destruction and creation together with personal stories.
