In a time that could be described as a polycrisis of environmental and social challenges, when the world as we know it is being transformed, this project explores questions about the individual’s choices and the intrinsic value of nature.

– We are dead to the world when we come here. Gone. We are only for God. You can stay, but you may not photograph our faces, said the abbess. A moment’s hesitation arose. Then curiosity took over. Why do they want to hide their faces?  In a world where focus is on the induvidual and everyone shows their face everywhere who do you become when you give up your identity and become anonymous? The women live closely together in a near self-sufficient world on the margins of the outside world. At three o’clock every night everyone rises to participate in a mass in the chapel. There is much that arouses strong emotions and even anger. The persons I photograph are wrestling with their demons and I with mine. They speak of the devil. Is it possible that the nightly prayers maintain the balance for all of us? In the flickering glow of candles and accompanied by the sound of beautiful voices singing the stormy emotions are stilled unexpectedly, much like a small personal revelation. I think I understand something. This is a work in progress that started in 2006. Since then Johanna has visited the sisters, in Greece close to the Bulgarian border, on many occasions and the story keeps developing. The photographs are documentary, yet together they tell a story about something larger, something beyond the immediately visible. There is more to come.

Travel report after receiving the Kavalla grant in 2014.