BLEIBE means: stay, persist, reside! (imperative); as well as abode (noun). In spring 2023, my elderly father moved from Bremen to a retirement home in Berlin, returning to the city he had come to as a young man on a scholarship from Ghana in the 1960s to study medicine.

Since my father’s return, I have accompanied him photo- graphically, to make visible his personal experience as well as prompting questions:

How can I feel at ease and comfortable in a retirement home, despite its impersonal setting?

Wie erlebe ich die Stadt, in der ich vor mehr als einem halben Jahrhundert gelebt habe? 

How do I now experience the city in which I lived more than half a century ago?

How do I make contact with people from my diaspora? And what circles is it still possible for me to move in?

STAY is a portrait of the (in)visibility of age and illness, overcoming stigmatization, dignity and resilience, and the possibility of being able to participate in life.

A visual affirmation.