Remembering the Mill is a personal project exploring how we remember places around us, and if we can intentionally form nostalgia for them. Focusing on a familiar landmark near my home, the Horner Mühle, my goal was to commit to one location and document that experience in depth.

The project is a personal challenge, as I committed myself to creatively explore the mill daily for the project’s duration of three months. I had to keep myself creative and disciplined, even if I lacked motivation on specific days or certain periods of time.

My project manifests itself in the form of a hardcover book— a collection of exploration, documentation, and reflection, printed on 128 pages of large, high-quality uncoated paper. The book functions both as an insightful read, filled with chapters of written introspection, and as a visual coffee table book, with large high-quality photographs and graphics.

Each chapter employs a different way I formed a connection with the mill.
“Observation” discusses the different perspectives I chose to view the landmark with, and the multiple methods I perceived it.
“Documentation” includes photography (digital + analog), drawing, and audio recording, which are meaningful ways to objectively or subjectively document a place in time.
“Exploring” consisted of a collection of methods I explored the mill’s influence, whether it was through other people’s experiences, existing knowledge, or impact on its surroundings.
“Archiving” refers to the preservation of material, and allows my book to act as a collection of historical content centered around the mill, functioning as an additional archive of the mill from summer 2025.
“Reflecting” finally allows me to reflect on my experience and method. In order to emphasise the personal impact, this section is entirely written by hand, contained in a fold-in that is physically present in the final chapter of the book.

In addition to the accumulated photographs, experiments, observations, historical photos, recordings, data, and research— my extensive writing delves into deep and personal reflections, which are chronicled throughout the book. My method, unique to me and my project, provides a valuable insight on how memories and nostalgia can be produced through intention and commitment, as I was able to form deep feelings of nostalgia myself— forever remembering the Horner Mühle in Bremen as a special place for me. I concluded the reflection with the discovery that the project allowed me to learn much more about myself than I did about the mill.

If there should be any intended takeaways for readers of the work, it should be an encouragement to explore and find inspiration in the places that are ordinary, to set a personal landmark, keep committed to it, and allow this process to form deep, emotional connections with where we live.