If on a Winter´s Night a Traveller

PhotoDérive as urban exploration

Andrea Figari

From tourism to migration, from exile to persecution, travel shapes our personal stories. ‘Where are you from?’ is a challenging question for anyone who has a patchwork of origin stories.

When a traveller arrives at a new destination, exploration surely follows. We get to know places and they affect us – based on what or who is there (or not), and on what we can (or cannot) do there. Places often have assigned roles: this is where one eats, works, plays, shops, drives, and so on. What if we overcome these limitations? What if we free ourselves from our own limitations in order truly to experience a place and imagine how it could be different?

The photographer uses the tool of dérive (drift) for her psychogeographical observation of cities, their communities, and their origin stories. Psychogeography explores the effect places have on us, the emotions they trigger – and how these might change. The dérive facilitates free exploration while remaining focused on a theme, a motto, or an experience that runs as a common thread through all the images that ensue, helping hold them together.