LOVECITYHATECITY

move city mood city

Bastian was born on a small island in the North Sea in 1977. After spending his youth somewhere between the Rhine-Main metropolises of Frankfurt and Darmstadt, he has been living in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany, since he was 18. Over the decades, the influence of the big city took over the greater part of his emotional world, and the memories of his childhood on the island faded and transfigured. This emotional field of tension between being at home in the big city and the reflex to escape from it, becomes an important part of his photographic work. Bastian lives smack in the middle of Hamburg together with his two daughters and his wife. The plans to "move to the country" are discussed and rejected at regular intervals in the family circle.

-

“The city is my home. I experience all the beautiful things in it. I found the love of my life in the city. My children were born in the city. I met most of my friends in it. All the major events of my life took place here, weddings, births, anniversaries of all kind.
The pleasure of everyday life. The symmetry of the pulsating hot spots. The possibilities. The culture and the subculture are always available. It keeps me young. I am part of it.

I LOVE THE CITY

Uncountable times I wanted to get out of the city. It gets on my nerves almost every day. It’s known to be the major cause of stress. The potential death of fine dust hovers over us like a Damocles sword. Daily reports of accidents and crimes pour in, while at the same time we have to let the kids go and discover their own city life. Pranayama. Exhale, let it go. - The noise, the dirt. The fake green areas. 'There's shit everywhere, you actually have to float!' Peter Fox once rapped.

I HATE THE CITY

-

For LOVECITYHATECITY, Bastian photographed in Hamburg, London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Rome in 2021/2022. Using typical street photography techniques, he roams and drifts the streets to create pictures that put a little order in the chaotic metropolis pulsation. He subjectively captures how the city moves and everything in it. The subject of this series, like most of his work, deals with bipolar emotions and tensions surrounding life in the big city.

This series is a work in progress.