Starting over in a new country can be both empowering and uncertain. You adapt to new ways of living, while discovering a new version of yourself. I’ve been living in abroad since 2014 and settled in Paris a few years ago. Over the years, I’ve participated in numerous expat meet-up events and have met - and said goodbye to - many friends as they came and went. Gradually, I began to feel the absence of the close friendships and sense of sisterhood I once shared with my girls in my small Hungarian hometown.
As these feelings deepened, this series began to grow organically. Over time, I began to photograph foreign women who crossed my path and were in the same shoes as me - being foreigners in Paris. I have photographed them in their own private spaces, after conversations about their experiences of living far from home. After each session, I ask them to write to me - by hand - about their thoughts and experiences of living far from home. I show the portraits alongside these handwritten reflections.
This project is not only about photography, but about creating contact. In a city where deep connections are difficult to establish, these encounters became my way to reach out. Being introverted, this approach allowed me to create slow and meaningful moments. What connects us is not only the fact that we are far from home, but everything we carry emotionally because of it - and such an encounter feels like a safe space to share it. This mutual recognition builds a unique kind of trust. I always feel honoured by the way they let me into their lives, into their homes. My camera, as Susan Sontag wrote, becomes a passport but in a smooth way, into a personal world.
However, I remain conscious of the vulnerability shared with me and try to photograph with care rather than control - asking questions and listening first, and only then making images. These sessions aren’t about directing, but about mutual construction, where the subject shapes how she wants to be seen.
Their handwritten notes add another layer - vulnerable and honest, revealing something usually hidden: thoughts on belonging, memory, fear, hope. Together, these images and texts form a dual portrait - how they are seen, and how they see themselves.
This is a slow long-term project I continue while living in Paris (since 2016). In the future, I plan to publish a book from the portraits and reflections collected over time.