Tucked away from the rest of society, the rest areas along the highways are meant to be a much-needed respite on the way to one’s final destination. In Denmark, there are 148 rest areas with open toilets supervised by the Danish Road Directorate. But these paved oases also have a life of their own, although hardly anyone stays more than 10 minutes.
In his project Are we nearly there yet? Mathias Eis has visited strategically selected rest areas, preferably those that are still run independently of the big chains serving classic Danish dishes. The project creates a nuanced contemporary image of Denmark and the people who are either at work, traveling through the country, or just stopping at a rest area as a break from everyday life.
Mathias Eis
Mathias Eis (b. 1995) is a documentary photographer and visual storyteller, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, who specializes in long-term real-life projects that explore people’s ways of living through portraiture, reportage and landscape photography. He graduated with an BA in Photojournalism from the Danish School of Media and Journalism in 2023. He also attended the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, where he studied Fine Art Photography from 2018-2019. He is particularly interested in communities and subcultures that provide a unique insight into a life that few have access to. He works as a freelancer focusing on longer projects combined with commissioned assignments for various international and national media.
