“Forgetfulness held sway, a blessed hush,
the innocence of those places where time is not.”
– Thomas Mann,The Magic Mountain 1924
Artist Statement
I made my way on a journey from the lowlands of Northern Europe up to Davos high in the Swiss mountains. I wanted to explore the location that inspired Thomas Mann’s novel The Magic Mountain. Following in the writer’s footsteps, I discovered a place that bears a specific relation to time passing, whilst also being immersed in an uncanny stillness. My photographs take the viewer into the abandoned halls of what was once a Sanatorium for sufferers from tuberculosis. Death hovers over this place: many visitors have come and gone, have unpacked their luggage, never left. Invisible strings stretch into the past and span the early years of the last century, shortly before World War I. My photographs explore time and its relationship to the atmospheric power of a place. My work touches on our desire to flee from society, our need to travel, to regain energy in the mountains, and to seek sustenance from the dark forest and its quiet shades.