As a white mother of two adopted coloured children, it has always felt necessary for my children and me to get to know their roots. How do they cope with getting the same questions, everywhere, over and over again: 'where are you from?' I feel powerless when they have to explain why their mother is white, and when they have been bullied because of their colour and origin. It frustrates me, that although I can comfort them, I will never be able to feel what they feel. You cannot change your background, but the environment can reduce their prejudices.

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It is a search for my son's roots and the bond between us. The distance between my adopted son and me increased since my son left the house to live in an assisted home—that’ s why I wanted to go back to the country where he was born.

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My son searched for his roots, with the hope of finding it would awaken something in him. But the chance that you can connect with a place that you’ve left around your first birthday could be small and does not get bigger if your body and mind have suffered considerable scars because you were born 14 weeks too early.

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You will see the love I cherish for my son. This series is a journey through Colombia, and through the emotional world of a complicated, but loving mother-son relationship. Live as it is—a continuous search.

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Bio
Ingeborg is a visual storyteller, based in Amsterdam. In her work, she draws to purity, vulnerability and authenticity in people. She photograph people who might not appear to stand out in daily life but who carry an emotional or unique story with them. Her themes include loneliness, poverty and illness, which she can observe in people. As Ingeborg is genuinely interested and sympathies with her subjects, the people she photographs feel that they can trust her and allow her into their personal lives. The surroundings where these people live, plays an essential role in her images. Ingeborg successfully graduated from the Photo Academy in Amsterdam in 2019.