Thomas Albdorf

In August 2015, I finished my series “I Know I Will See What I Have Seen Before.” The vast majority of images in the publication are intricate studio arrangements. Often the final works consist of many images — a very complex, exhaustive practice.

After finishing everything, I went on my first real vacation with my family — back then my 1,5 year old son and my girlfriend. I only brought my old Canon 35mm camera and quite a few rolls of Kodak Portra. I was very much looking forward to just taking pictures of my beloved ones at the beach. Still, we could not help but take a few images in the vein of my earlier sculpture-related work — my son would pile up random objects, or I would find a huge teddybear tied to a pole, and so on.

Those vacation pictures turned out pretty conventional, though there were some odd ones. It felt natural and easy but still carried that certain vibe I like about weirdly mundane settings. The image on the left shows my girlfriend’s hands holding a phone-shaped stone we found.