EARTHLINGS AT A CROSSROADS
Motivated by a desire to leave the city and live closer to nature, breathe fresh air, and grow his own food, Ensar placed an ad with a group of like-minded people seeking a piece of land on loan where they could realize their plans. The group’s goal was to practice permaculture. In February 2017, a private landowner offered them 18 hectares of land in Potoci, a village near Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and allowed them to use it free of charge for five years.
In a landscape of vineyards, olive groves, and orchards, they established the “Laboratory of Sustainability”, a space for developing and testing self-sustaining systems through food production, water and energy collection, and recycling.
Ensar became the only permanent resident on the land relatively early on.
He lives in a converted 14-square-meter refrigerated truck unit, equipped with all the basic household appliances found in any other home. His daily life takes place mostly outdoors, surrounded by vineyards and olive trees. Using a billboard tarp, he covered the basement of a demolished house and created an improvised pond to escape Mostar’s intense summer heat.
At times, he opens his modest home to abandoned animals, giving them shelter until a new owner is found and a chance for a fresh start filled with love and care.
Throughout the year, he offers free camping space to cyclists from all over the world who travel through Mostar as part of their journeys, providing them with a place to rest and recover along the way. With the help of visitors from Australia, he built a wooden cabin that served as a classroom for a course on designing sustainable living spaces.
During my research, I wondered how nature inspired him, how he organized his life within it, and whether he managed to shape it according to his plan.
That encounter reflected a simple truth: at times, we all find ourselves standing at a crossroads, called to choose the path that will shape who we become.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, MAY 2022: Daily life unfolds around an improvised pond on a rural property, shaped by adaptation, a close connection with nature, and limited resources.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, MAY 2022: In an olive grove, Ensar raises his arms beneath the branches of a tree as sunlight filters through the leaves. The image captures a composed yet intimate moment, with the landscape becoming both a backdrop and a shelter.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, MAY 2022: The converted refrigerated truck unit, reinforced with rough wooden panels, forms a modest 14-square-meter home at the edge of an olive grove, with steep mountain cliffs rising in the distance.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, MAY 2022: An intimate moment shared with a cyclist from the Netherlands, who found temporary rest on his three-month journey to Istanbul, traveling mainly to explore the Balkans and be inspired by the beauty of the road.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, JUNE 2022: Olive trees rise like silent witnesses over a field where traces of human presence remain scattered.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, MAY 2022: Ensar walks into a narrow passage inside a cluttered wooden cabin, the recycling-symbol tattoo on his calf briefly catching the light as he moves. Built together with visitors from Australia, the cabin served as a classroom where participants explored sustainable living spaces based on permaculture principles.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, MAY 2022: At the back of a handmade wooden cabin, Ensar pauses in silence on a worn sofa, his body turned toward the late afternoon sun. The surrounding disorder reflects endurance and adaptation in a moment suspended between rest and uncertainty, where personal freedom carries visible weight.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, JULY 2022: In the filtered light beneath the olive trees, discarded plastic and dying plants quietly suggest a place where care once existed.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, JULY 2022: The image reflects the intimacy of temporary living spaces and the human need to belong.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, MAY 2022: The intimacy of shared silence at the edge of evening captures a fleeting balance between vulnerability and safety.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, MAY 2022: A private moment at the end of a long day speaks quietly of isolation, vulnerability, and the need for rest.
POTOCI, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, JULY 2022: Between rows of overgrown vines, framed by dry summer grass and a steep mountain in the distance, Ensar gently touches the plant beside him as gathering clouds darken the horizon. His gesture toward the vine feels casual and familiar, suggesting a relationship shaped by repetition, care, and long days spent within the landscape. The photograph reflects on the fragile relationship between the land and the body, carrying the tension of waiting: for rain, for harvest, and for change that may never fully arrive.