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My Favourite Space

My Favourite Space is a photography and research project that explores how individuals form emotional and spatial connections to the places they hold dear. Across a range of cities and cultural contexts, participants are invited to guide the researcher to their “favourite space”—a site marked by memory, transformation, comfort, or significance.

Each encounter begins with extended conversations. Sometimes these span several hours or days, allowing time for trust to develop before any photographs are taken. The process culminates in a triptych: one analog portrait of the participant, and two photographs of the space without them. All images are made using a medium format Hasselblad 500C/M camera, composed in-camera and left uncropped or digitally altered, preserving the integrity of the moment and the frame.

Since January 2024, over 60 individuals have been photographed in locations ranging from rooftops in Mumbai and gardens in Hamburg to riversides in Barneville-Carteret, music halls in Berlin, and vans in Ahmedabad. Whether public or private, temporary or sacred, each space reveals how architecture becomes deeply personal.

The project sits at the intersection of analogue photography, spatial storytelling, and ethnographic research. It proposes that by observing how people inhabit and care for their environments, new forms of knowledge about place, memory, and identity can emerge—slower, quieter, and rooted in presence.

Limited-Edition Prints for Sale
A limited number of prints are available.
Feel free to email me at mail@fionacuypersstanienda.com to request one.

“It’s actually any place that I’m building that is my favourite place. It just happens to be this one right now.”

Moksha—Workshop, Ahmedabad ID (2024)

Fiona: Somehow, I couldn’t imagine you in that space at first. I had something else in mind—it felt much bigger in scale. But when I saw you there, dressed so casually yet beautifully, it was clear you belonged. You didn’t feel like a visitor; there was a part of you in that space.

Moksha: I don’t feel like a visitor. That’s for sure. I feel very comfortable, which is why it’s still my favourite space—until I find a new one, which will probably be slightly uncomfortable.

Fiona: But actually, your favourite space is much bigger. The whole premise, really. Is it something that will always stay with you?

Moksha: It will never stop being my favourite place. It’s just that new places will keep getting added. The van we took the portrait in—it could be anywhere and still be my favourite. In that way, it’s endless. It’s not about the geography. It’s the object. The bus, though—that belongs to this place. That’s different.

“They command the space for the moment, not necessarily through owning it.”

Arthur—Chaiwala, Ahmedabad ID (2024)

Fiona: We explored three different spaces—the market, the chai stand, and the tomb. You seemed most at home in all of them.

Arthur: I’ve been connected to Ahmedabad for over 40 years. And still, each time I come back, something new emerges. It’s an extraordinarily generous city—you give a little, and so much comes back.

Fiona: When we were in the bazaar, you called it a kind of theatre.

Arthur: Yes! The bazaar isn’t just for buying things—it’s a spectacle. People go there just to see how others engage, negotiate, manage themselves. There’s this buzzing energy you don’t get in a mall.

Fiona: And the chai stand... you called it the axis mundi of the city.

Arthur: Exactly. That tiny tea shop at the bus stand—it’s the centre. It’s where everything and everyone rotates around. That’s what makes it so precious.

“It’s not about a capitalistic model at all. What you’re doing is getting to know someone, having tea, and taking photos.”

Sahra—Home, London UK (2024)

Sahra: I’m very careful about who I let into my space. Some people bring an energy that ruins it. But when you came, it felt natural—like we were just having tea.

Fiona: For me, it was the trust we built. The photo only worked because we spent time first. It’s not about capturing a moment—it’s about creating it together.

Sahra: That’s what made it different. You weren’t imposing; you were curating. That one photo—with the cat and the plant—captures everything. It just feels like me.

Fiona: And you spoke about how hard it is to see yourself in photos.

Sahra: Yes, absolutely. I often feel like a soul in a body, not the other way around. I look outwards most of the time, and when I see a photo of myself, it’s like I’m meeting someone I know and don’t know at the same time.

“It’s empty and lost, but sometimes there’s beauty in those kinds of failures.”

Johannes—Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin DE (2024)

Fiona: The Philharmonie clearly means a lot to you—not just the building, but the entire walk around it.

Johannes: I visit it often. There’s this quiet, empty zone between the Philharmonie and the Nationalgalerie—it feels forgotten, but in a good way. Like a failure that became beautiful.

Fiona: You called that emptiness magical.

Johannes: Yes. During COVID, that space felt like the countryside—right in the centre of Berlin. No one around. Just you and the city, breathing.

Fiona: And your portrait—standing by the back entrance. That spot was important.

Johannes: It’s where I used to go in for school concerts. As a kid, I didn’t understand the architecture, but I felt it. And now I walk those same paths and think of my grandmother, of memories that shaped me.

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