“I dreamt of summer” is a visual journey to a place, filled with fun, joy and happiness. Place, free from troubles and worries. Place, where you’re surrounded by love and care and not burdened by the hardness of the outside world. It’s a place of my childhood summer.

Many times before, I dreamt of returning to it. I wanted to experience “the summer” again, spend a long hot day bathing in the river or in the lake, get up in the early hours of daybreak and set off for fishing or just relax in the cool shade of an old oak tree by the water.

And one summer I returned there. I returned to the place of my childhood and immersed myself into it to… Only to realize that it is not the place attracted me, but the memory of it. Memory of swimming in a lake, riding a bike or playing the endless outdoor games with friends until you’re completely exhausted. Memory of being there at home and the memory of leaving it.

Now I’m just a visitor, I’m an outsider. I’m the one, who left that place. However, I’m the one, who would return to it again and again driven by powerful force of longing and nostalgia. And every time I return, I would only find it in my memories. The place has changed, it’s not there anymore. I have changed… Memories are fading away. I can’t see them clear anymore…

And the only place left to see them, is my dreams.

All images ©Oleksandr Ivanchenko