The Dark Silence

• Prize
  Gold in Analog / Film/Editorial / Journalism, 2nd Place winner in Analog / Film
• Photographer
  Michael Anker
• Technical Info
  Hasselblad 501 Cm, Kodak Portra 400
• Photo Date
  2024

I'm trying to explore a part of my cultural identity. My mother's family emigrated from Germany in 1766. It was settled on the Tsarist crown estate of Hirschenhof in today's Latvia. More than 170 years of peaceful coexistence between Germans and Latvians ended in 1939 with the events of the Second World War. The colony was closed and the inhabitants were resettled in Poland. At the end of II. WW, my mother meets my father in Germany. The history of Hirschenhof has something universal if you want to understand today's migration flows. Analogue photographed in Latvia and Germany.