These intimate photos capture chance encounters across Europe

Moving away from home on the cusp of adulthood is a formative experience. There’s a sense of the world opening up before you, but also, perhaps for the first time, an understanding of what it means to be truly on your own. For photographer Alicia Nieto, who left a small town in northern Mexico to study in Europe at 18, this period of change became the starting point for See You Sometime, Somewhere, a photographic diary of the people and places she encountered along the way.

“Living between cities meant constantly meeting people, forming connections, and saying goodbye. Photography became a way of processing those changes and holding on to people and moments that I knew wouldn’t last,” she explains of the series. “The guiding principle was to follow what moved me emotionally. I wanted to preserve how it felt to be close to someone, to inhabit a place temporarily, and everything that exists in between. The photographs became a way of giving those fleeting connections somewhere to remain.”

Within the series are shots of winding car journeys, faces washed in neon streetlight and raucous nights spent in the pits and basements of music venues. While many of the subjects are close friends whom Nieto has photographed for years, others are people she encountered through her interest in punk, rock and goth scenes. “I remember going alone to a Christian Death concert in New York, with nothing but my camera, and ending up meeting so many interesting people throughout the night. It became one of those evenings where you arrive knowing nobody and leave feeling like you’ve briefly stepped into a whole different world.”

One of her favourite shots from the project shows her friend Zola hugging her boyfriend Oliver from behind, taken while Zola was falling in love for the first time. “I’ve never been in love with a romantic partner myself, so I think that’s partly why I’m so drawn to it and curious about understanding that kind of love,” she says. “I find the idea of meeting someone with whom you can completely be yourself, someone who embraces the darker parts of you, and with whom you can connect on an emotional, intellectual and physical level, incredibly magical.” She points to Derek Ridgers’ Hello, I Love You as one of her favourite photo books, alongside the work of Nan Goldin, Corinne Day and Sheila Rock, whose intimate portraits have also shaped her approach.

The title See You Sometime, Somewhere reflects this openness to chance encounters. Nieto recalls a spontaneous trip to Leipzig, taken during a difficult period while she was living in Berlin. “Through a friend, I got in touch with someone who offered to host me. We had only exchanged a few messages, so I arrived knowing nothing about him. But the moment he opened the door, I was immediately drawn to his energy. We ended up sharing a brief but intense connection.” On the way home, her car broke down, leaving her to hitchhike back. “A woman stopped with her dog, and it turned out she was a well-known German rock star,” she recalls. “We spent the whole drive talking about music while her dog sat on my lap.”

Looking back on the years since leaving Mexico, the photographer is struck by how much she has changed alongside the people she’s photographed. “I think I’m quite obsessed with memory, death, and our ability to constantly be reborn as human beings. I feel like all the cities I’ve lived in, the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had have shaped me in different ways, but I’ve never felt like one fixed person,” she reflects. “We’re all constantly leaving parts of ourselves behind and becoming someone new. I’m fascinated by what remains of the people we once were, and how those different versions of ourselves continue to exist within us.”

Now working on new photographic projects, Nieto plans to bring See You Sometime, Somewhere to a close next year, hoping to turn the thousands of photographs she has accumulated into a book and exhibition. “It feels strange to think that something that started so spontaneously has become such a big part of my life, but I’m excited to give it a form of its own.”