The picture is a collage of four consecutive high speed pictures of one eruption of the Strokkur geyser. This geyser is located in the so called golden circle in the the south-west of Iceland. It erupts about every eight minutes and the fountain can reach a height of up to 30 meters. The geyser shows us the untamed force of nature. Vulcanic heat boils the water in the deep, the steam breaks his way through the surface. No human being could stop this natural play.
My first symptoms showed up 2010 and I was diagnosed in 2021.
Looking back, I must admit that I didn’t take the disease seriously. I had not accepted my illness and to be honest, I am still struggling with accepting it. Working too much, not caring enough for myself, and always going to the last limits of my physical strength has caused quite a few relapses and worsening of my ability to walk. In 2019, I ended up in a wheelchair. Despite all of that, our life is not sad AT ALL! We have done a lot of traveling having visited the U.S., Canada, Oman, Hawaii, Africa, and European destinations. Since 2020, we have owned a campervan and escape our daily stressors as frequently as possible. We took eight weeks off to avoid the cold German winter and stayed in Greece. On all those wonderful trips, my wife and I have perfectly shared our passion for photography.
NMO has changed me as a human being, I totally had to reinvent myself. The awareness for using my own energy had been pushed to the forefront of my mind. To overthink your own situation, change your perspective of living, and accept help from others costed quite an effort.
Don’t ask if something is possible, ask how something is possible. My pictures reflect where I have been traveling, experiencing wonderful moments with my wife or my friends. They show that the patience to wait for the right moment is as important as the impatience reaching the target you want to achieve. And so it’s the same with NMO. You need the patience with yourself and the others, but you need to be the forcing advocate for yourself.
Facebook : Matthias Fuchs / Group : WIR.UND.NMO
Instagram : @chill.like.a.fox (wheelchair and NMO Topics) / @fuchs.ma / Group: @wir.und.nmo