The Place Where I am Not is a personal project exploring the dramatic changes that took place in my home country of Latvia over the past three years.

After joining the EU in 2004, Latvia had the fastest growing economy in Europe. But in 2008 the country was heavily hit by a recession and now has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the area. This dramatic shift has left an imprint on every aspect of life, with major institutions facing closure and hospitals and schools undergoing fundamental restructurings. Thousands of people are left with no steady source of income and no certainty for what the following day may bring. My work is a document of different responses to the situation in which Latvians have found themselves.

On a more personal level, I explore issues of migration and cultural identity, challenging the notion of ‘home’. Telling the story from the perspective of a young European who left the country of her origin in search for a better life overseas, I am not fully an outsider, nor insider. Instead of documenting the town that used to be my home, I capture the experience of returning to the place where I no longer am.

Tina Remiz
www.tinaremiz.co.uk

Sound credit: Mikus Straume