As a son of a Dutch mother and father from EX - Yugoslavia, I grew up in between two cultures. My father was a Serb from Bosnia and Herzegovina who migrated to the Netherlands before the civil war in the 90s. My father died in 2019 and he left a big void in me. I had questions about the other part of my identity and heritage that I hadn’t connected to before.
‘Where did my father come from?’ and ‘How did this culture shape him into the man he was?’
I took the time to go on a journey and explore my father's birthplace Bosnia and Herzegovina to trace his roots. Equipped with my camera I walked the same roads he walked when he was a kid, visited places he went to as a young man and found people who knew him and others who never met him. By doing this I constantly asked myself the question:
‘How could my life look like if I was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina instead of the Netherlands?’.
Through this journey, I felt so close to my father like never before. I traced him in the faces of those, on the bumpy roads and unfinished houses, he was there! And at last, I found myself at home just as my father did.
The series of photos addresses topics like displacement, identity and home.
The work is made between 2019-2022.
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
As a son of a Dutch mother and father from EX - Yugoslavia, I grew up in between two cultures. My father was a Serb from Bosnia and Herzegovina who migrated to the Netherlands before the civil war in the 90s. My father died in 2019 and he left a big void in me. I had questions about the other part of my identity and heritage that I hadn’t connected to before.
‘Where did my father come from?’ and ‘How did this culture shape him into the man he was?’
I took the time to go on a journey and explore my father's birthplace Bosnia and Herzegovina to trace his roots. Equipped with my camera I walked the same roads he walked when he was a kid, visited places he went to as a young man and found people who knew him and others who never met him. By doing this I constantly asked myself the question:
‘How could my life look like if I was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina instead of the Netherlands?’.
Through this journey, I felt so close to my father like never before. I traced him in the faces of those, on the bumpy roads and unfinished houses, he was there! And at last, I found myself at home just as my father did.
The series of photos addresses topics like displacement, identity and home.
The work is made between 2019-2022.
