In August 2019, I was hired by Studio Riebenbauer to photograph historic castles/hotels in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, and Switzerland (project found here). In just 32 days, I shot 29 hotels (and delivered selects), drove 3500km through the 4 countries, and squeezed in 164 miles of mountain biking in the alps. Each day consisted of packing, photographing, driving, unpacking, photographing, eating, drinking, and sometimes sleeping.

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I ate almost every meal alone - without the escape of a cell phone or the focused distraction afforded by eavesdropping on adjacent tables. I just sat, ate and observed. Here I was, eating free 6-course meals in beautiful European mountains, simultaneously exhausted and stimulated, fully alone, but fully content. 

The trip's combination of movement and solitude created a ghostly feeling, like I was existing in a separate dimension of the same world. I would show up to a hotel in a small town and be acutely observant of everything going on around me in the town. Then I would leave. The oft-heartfelt, yet broken conversations I had from time to time could not be the start of a relationship, just fleeting yet meaningful memories, valuable in and of themselves.

As time has passed, these five weeks have grown more and more important to me. For months, I gave quick, almost rehearsed recaps of the trip to friends, family, and coworkers; boiling it down to “busy, amazing food, and great mountain biking.” I now realize that I wasn’t just writing off conversations, but I had not yet processed how I felt and what the trip meant to me. Now that I have been re-accustomed to my usual steady life, I miss this adventure in a profound way. Any reminder of Europe throws me into a profound, warm nostalgia.

I was too distracted to realize at the time, but these photos show a clear window in to my psyche and expression of emotion during the trip. The majority, shot mostly in portrait orientation, feel voyeuristic and observational - little glimpses of intimately ordinary moments that a native European might not think twice about; moments that are generally meaningless, but infinitely important to me. These photos mean a lot to me, and I share them in hopes that these feelings and experiences do not live solely in me, but can be shared and felt by others (you).