Blue Mood (Al Mar)

Blue Mood (Al Mar) is a project that delves into the complex emotional landscape of adolescent men.

This tender and poignant portrait of a generation reimagines and reinterprets memories in a vibrant and dreamlike world. The project reflects on the challenges of growing up, the search for self-acceptance, and the vulnerability of young masculinity.

The project also draws on my personal memories and the stories of friends and family, featuring a cast of characters that exist within my everyday life. Their faces are often obscured, creating an air of ambiguity that invites viewers to imagine their interpretation of the narrative. This makes Blue Mood (Al Mar) both a private, intimate document, and a universal story.

In addition to portraits of young men, the work includes vivid scenes that serve as touchstones to our collective memory. These scenes capture the beauty and melancholy of everyday life, drawing on the holiday landscapes of Zeeland and Spain as a basis for the world created. These places are deeply connected to my own emotions and memories related to the project’s theme, and they are recontextualized as safe spaces where emotions can be experienced.

Blue Mood (Al Mar) has been exhibited at galleries such as 1014 Gallery in London, UK, and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, as well as being featured in several international magazines such as i-D, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and HERO Magazine. It was also selected for the Palm* Photo Prize in 2022 and presented at Unseen with Galerie Ron Mandos in the same year.