The Humanness of Our Lonely Selves
Awoiska van der Molen
Awoiska van der Molen (born 1972) is a Dutch photographer. She is known for her monumental black and white analogue images. Her first monograph Sequester (2014) was internationally awarded and her international breakthrough. After Blanco (2017) and The Living Mountain (2020), The Humanness of Our Lonely Selves is van der Molen’s fourth monograph. It’s a change from the previous bodies of work.
In her older work we look at darkness, In the darkness we try to distinguish something. In The Humanness of Our Lonely Selves we look at light. Awoiska van der Molen zooms in on illuminated windows in the darkness of the evening in Japan. With the illuminated windows in Japan she is taking a new path. She mainly captures them in villages. The windows there reveal little of the inside of a home. In the light of the illuminated windows we still try to distinguish something. In her new work Van der Molen is not on the edge of nothing looking in, but on the edge of something looking in.
The windows function as a screen between the observer and the psychological inner world of the ones living behind the windows. Through the windows, we catch a glimpse of the life behind them. Yet there is no substantial contact. The windows serve as a barrier. They represent the longing for connection as well as comfort with distance.
The book The Humanness of Our Lonely Selves is ingeneously put together. It’s a leporello which can be unfolded. You can wander around in it, in no specific order. Just like a night walk. It’s about the experience of being outside. In that way it reminds me of Summer Nights, Walking by Robert Adams.
But in Van der Molen’s images there is also the experience of not being able to look inside. It creates distance. And a feeling of being left out. Yet the images do not give the feeling of loneliness. More the feeling of being alone. That doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad feeling. Hence the title, I guess, The Humanness of Our Lonely Selves.
The Humanness of Our Lonely Selves
Photographer: Awoiska van der Molen
Publisher: FW: Books
Published in 2024
Leporello with 16 page insert, 56 pages, 22 x 28 cm
Shortlisted for the 2024 Paris Photo – Aperture Photobook of the Year Award