Ik was hier
by Thomas Beltsios
portfolio shortlisted call 'Urbanautica Institute Awards 2025', 2025
Category: People and Communities
Ik was hier (“I was here”) was written on the wall in the entrance of the building I moved into after nearly three years away. Encountering this small gesture every day made me reflect on presence, the desire to leave a mark, and how these impulses are shaped by the circumstances and structures that surround and define us.
Over the following two years, I photographed intuitively and began putting images together to find a sense of narrative and better understand what I had been looking for. Recurring themes emerged, and within the differences between the pictures I noticed connections, at times paradoxical, creating possibilities for interpretation and meaning.
Ik was hier is a photographic work that uses the camera’s ability to look at something while simultaneously revealing something about the looker, creating a subtle, enigmatic space for the viewer to navigate.