My name is Tim Heubeck and I am a photographer based in Germany. I run a website and Instagram channel; all under the name of wasteoffilm. Photography, for me, is less about what the things we are familiar with look like and more about everything that lays under the surface; everything we cannot express and fail to see in our daily life. Working on long-term projects and focusing on black and white film photography has enabled me to bring back the physicality of art, and revealing the only true way of showing a photograph: through print. Since 2015 I have exclusively focused on self-publishing books. To date, six publications have resulted; spanning work from nearly a decade of constant observing and photographing.
In this article, the aim is to share more insights into the thought-process of creating my latest and sixth project “A Place To Be”. This is one that took me years to produce and is the result of many sleepless nights, both while creating the work and producing the final book. Without further ado, let’s jump into this article.
A Place To Be - A Journey To Solitude
There seems to be a time in everyone’s life when one just needs to be with oneself. For me, this time came shortly before I turned twenty and the years following. The need to escape from reality, at least for a while, grew stronger and stronger until it had conjured up to a point, where I finally needed to head away from home; completely alone. Japan promised to be as far away from everything I have grown accustomed to. It seemed like the ideal escape.
Upon first setting foot in Japan, I had this strange sensation of having arrived in some different kind of world. A world where no-one knew me; a world where I could be whoever I wanted to be; ultimately, a world where I could fill my days with whatever came to mind. Setting out every single day with my camera in hand, I decided to wander around with no clear goal or direction in mind, with the aim of capturing everything I happened to see or be interested in.
The first days felt like a rush; pressing the shutter of my camera in what seemed like every minute of the day. There was so much to take in, so many different things happening at the same time. It seemed like I was the only one noticing those things; the only one amidst millions of other people surrounding me on the busy streets of Japan’s metropolitan areas. After spending quite some time in Tokyo, I began to embark on a train-journey down to, among others, Yokohama, Nagoya, Nara, Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe. In Nagoya, joined by a family-friend, we drove around Japan’s countryside, visiting many of the more remote towns and shrines. The days began to blur, the weeks began to pass and I had to return home. But I was sure this would not be my last escape to Japan. It was, in fact, the beginning of a deep love for a place.
A few months after this first trip, I booked a flight to Tokyo again. I just felt like I needed to. And this is when it clicked inside my mind: This is the place I can run to when everything feels like it is getting too much; when I need to discover a new truth, one so far from everything I knew to this day. Finding solitude was the purpose of these journeys.
The starting point for all of these journeys was always Tokyo, from where I made my way through numerous of Japan’s prefectures and islands. Over the years, the train has taken me to various larger and smaller cities of Japan; mostly traveling south of Tokyo. Finding myself in Nagano, Toyama, and Ishikawa prefecture as well as on Kyushu island - where not many western people make their way - I was far removed from everything I was familiar with. It was exactly during these times, when I got so caught up in just being, that I nearly forgot that this was not my regular life, and that there will come a day when I need to return back home.
Once in a lifetime, I feel, everyone needs to go on his / her own journey to solitude in order to filter out all of the noise that usually surrounds us. This quest will certainly be hard, especially getting used to be surrounded by only yourself throughout most of the time. Nevertheless, once you are beyond a certain point, where your thoughts, fears, and everything you have been holding back during all of those years finally begin to surface, you will begin to realize the reason and importance of such endeavors. Maybe this break from the mundane life is necessary once in a while, to be reminded who you are and what it really is you want from life. Maybe our modern-day life just does not allow us to discover this truth anymore. Maybe we have lost a part of ourselves by making us somewhat numb to our true inside.
Over the course of my travels to Japan, I have met many strangers, seen many intriguing places, shot hundreds of rolls of film, and traveled many thousand miles through the country. Ultimately, these journeys have enabled me to be the person I am today, by realizing who it is I am. After developing and viewing all of the photographs taken throughout my travels to Japan, it feels like they were taken by someone else, in a different lifetime. I do not seem to be able to remember many of these moments. Some days, I began to doubt that it was even me who took these photographs in the first place.
My sixth publication “a place to be” ties these journeys together; it is a document of what I saw, or maybe what I wanted to see during this time of my life. Putting this body of work together, I realized that it was a necessary closure. This period of my life is ultimately over. Still, I know for sure: There will come a time when I will feel the urge to escape again. And Japan will be this place for me to go to; my place to be.
