About Theresa
My name is Theresa Gessert, I'm a German photographer and storyteller. In primary school my teachers used to write in my report cards how excited I was about telling stories. In the following years I started writing little poems and short stories. As a teenager I also worked for a local newspaper and bought my first proper Camera. With it I strolled around town when strangers started to catch my eye - their appearances, expressions, the way they behaved individually. I really got into creating and catching moments like this. Little scenes I could compose, which would stand the test of time. Years later I did an apprenticeship as a journalist at a publisher in Hamburg, Germany. I then started working as a pr manager and photographer to tell stories in many different ways.
I love to listen to stories from people I just met randomly at a café or while cueing at the checkout of a supermarket as much as to listen to a person I already know half of my life. Why? It's about feeling what they feel, listening closely and getting inspired, about learning new things and experiencing perspectives and life styles through the eyes of another person.
Everyone has a story to tell and I am here to listen and provide a space for them to be shared in the shape of pictures, audios, videos.
My journey
And of cause I want to share my story, too. There's this one question stuck in my head: What gives my life meaning? I asked myself that many times, especially since last summer, when I decided to quit my job, terminate my apartment, leave the city I was living in for the past two and a half years, sell my beloved car als well as many of my belongings and move back in with my parents to live in my home town - at the age of 35. And why the changes? I mean, I had all the good things: a secure and well payed job that came with a lot of free time, a nice flat and car, I was (and still am ;-)) young and healthy. But I did not feel content with the life I led. The truth is, I felt more miserable everyday. I needed to make a decision. The decision to change. And despite the fact I didn't have the answer to my question yet. Now, months later, I am traveling to find my answer while being far away from my old life and a stuck routine. I took this whole year off for that. Which might sound easier than it was and is. Right now I'm around Spain.
While traveling I learn a lot about different approaches of life based on personal circumstances, cultures, family shaped expectations and values, social and political systems, experiences. And I got curious: What is it that gives meaning to other people's lives? What motivates them, keeps them going? So I started the project "What gives your life meaning?" to ask, listen and share these stories.
