Who am I? Where do I come from? What makes me who I am today? I can precisely date the trigger to these questions. Fourteen years ago, my mother told me that my biological father was not who I thought he was. She began to tell me about a trip she had made in the early 1980s and about a young man she had met on the coast of the Red Sea, at the foot of the Sinai Mountains. As she spoke, she took out a small plastic bag in which she had put a thin stack of photos. These were the only pictures she took at the time and the only images I have ever seen of my father. That day triggered a lot of things in me. Probably too much for me to realize and understand as a 12-year-old boy. It took almost ten years for the idea of meeting this biological father to emerge in me, and it took me the courage to get in touch with him. In January 2019, I met him for the first time. An uncertain journey had taken me as far as Israel, where he was living. This place was exotic to me, complex and complicated. Our first meeting was very moving for both of us and despite the many questions that were answered, I returned home with even more questions. During this first trip, I began to take pictures and to build up a kind of archive from family photographs that he confided to me as well as from other various documents that he entrusted to me. I think that what drives me to tell these intimate events is linked to the fact that I was quiet for so long. For me, this story has been a heavy subject, full of silences and taboos. I want to deal with the themes of exile and home, of this territory where we feel good and which defines us. In recent years, I have been exploring my own roots, always guided by my reflections on how belonging and attachment to a place is unraveled and recreated in a constant transformation. The questions of home, identity, external influences, socialization in relation to biological predetermination are the subjects I focus on in this work.
Tim lives and works in Bern. BA in Mediation of Art and Design at HKB (Hochschule der Künste Bern) 2019. Graduated from Formation supérieure en photographie (CEPV Vevey) in 2021. In his body of work, he deals with the themes of exile and habitat. For some years now he has been exploring his own roots and origins, always guided by his reflections on rootlessness and rootedness in other places or on how belonging and attachment to a territory are unraveled and created in a constant change.
@tim.o.rod
Who am I? Do you know how to surf? Are you superficial? Do you eat meat? Am I Swiss? Diese und viele weitere Fragen beschäftigen Tim Rod in seinem Fotoprojekt. Handschriftlich und eng an eng hat er sie als eigenes Tableau seinem Konvolut von Fotografien eingefügt. Rod beschreibt bildhaft den langsam reifenden Entschluss, nach Israel zu reisen, um dort zum ersten Mal seinen Vater zu treffen, den er nie zuvor gesehen hat. Es ist eine fotografische Reise auf der Suche nach dem eigenen Selbst, nach Identität, Ursprung und zu entdeckender Biografie, transformiert in einen verrätselt-unabgeschlossenen Bilderzyklus von grosser ästhetischer Komplexität.
Who am I? Where do I come from? What makes me who I am today? I can precisely date the trigger to these questions. Fourteen years ago, my mother told me that my biological father was not who I thought he was. She began to tell me about a trip she had made in the early 1980s and about a young man she had met on the coast of the Red Sea, at the foot of the Sinai Mountains. As she spoke, she took out a small plastic bag in which she had put a thin stack of photos. These were the only pictures she took at the time and the only images I have ever seen of my father. That day triggered a lot of things in me. Probably too much for me to realize and understand as a 12-year-old boy. It took almost ten years for the idea of meeting this biological father to emerge in me, and it took me the courage to get in touch with him. In January 2019, I met him for the first time. An uncertain journey had taken me as far as Israel, where he was living. This place was exotic to me, complex and complicated. Our first meeting was very moving for both of us and despite the many questions that were answered, I returned home with even more questions. During this first trip, I began to take pictures and to build up a kind of archive from family photographs that he confided to me as well as from other various documents that he entrusted to me. I think that what drives me to tell these intimate events is linked to the fact that I was quiet for so long. For me, this story has been a heavy subject, full of silences and taboos. I want to deal with the themes of exile and home, of this territory where we feel good and which defines us. In recent years, I have been exploring my own roots, always guided by my reflections on how belonging and attachment to a place is unraveled and recreated in a constant transformation. The questions of home, identity, external influences, socialization in relation to biological predetermination are the subjects I focus on in this work.
Tim lives and works in Bern. BA in Mediation of Art and Design at HKB (Hochschule der Künste Bern) 2019. Graduated from Formation supérieure en photographie (CEPV Vevey) in 2021. In his body of work, he deals with the themes of exile and habitat. For some years now he has been exploring his own roots and origins, always guided by his reflections on rootlessness and rootedness in other places or on how belonging and attachment to a territory are unraveled and created in a constant change.
@tim.o.rod
Who am I? Do you know how to surf? Are you superficial? Do you eat meat? Am I Swiss? Diese und viele weitere Fragen beschäftigen Tim Rod in seinem Fotoprojekt. Handschriftlich und eng an eng hat er sie als eigenes Tableau seinem Konvolut von Fotografien eingefügt. Rod beschreibt bildhaft den langsam reifenden Entschluss, nach Israel zu reisen, um dort zum ersten Mal seinen Vater zu treffen, den er nie zuvor gesehen hat. Es ist eine fotografische Reise auf der Suche nach dem eigenen Selbst, nach Identität, Ursprung und zu entdeckender Biografie, transformiert in einen verrätselt-unabgeschlossenen Bilderzyklus von grosser ästhetischer Komplexität.