Islands

Islands of Longing

I've always had a soft spot for islands. Perhaps because I grew up on one. Or perhaps because hardly any geographical motif sparks the imagination quite like an island: surrounded by water, self-contained yet open to everything the sea washes ashore. Since childhood, island stories have accompanied me – Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, Utopia – and with them, the question of why it is precisely a piece of land in the sea that continues to fascinate me to this day.

For this collection, I have gathered historical and contemporary maps of islands from all over the world – from Svalbard in the harsh, inhospitable north to the much-visited islets of Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. Each time I leaf through archives and atlases, through old sea charts with their elaborate embellishments, through colored copperplate engravings by early explorers or precise modern surveys, I am overcome anew by that peculiar mix of wanderlust and security.

That, I believe, is where the attraction lies: an island promises manageability, while the surrounding sea represents the unknown – a refuge and a starting point all at once.