This is my submission for the Beginning & End challenge at

When I heard that the theme of the first challenge was going to be Beginning & end I immediately thought about The Neverending Story.
I wanted to make a Photo that would fit into a group of Neverending Story photos that I found a while ago (the black &white ones on this website: [link] )
i wanted my photo to be of the nothing because that part is (to me) about beginnings and endings.


This is kinda how I imagined the nothing when I was reading the book.
[photo was taken on a very foggy day, so you can only see a small part of where you are after that the fog takes over and you can’t see anything at all, it looks like there is nothing there)

The Neverending Story is a book within a book. It’s also made into a movie
The nothing is the BEGINNING & the END

Beginning:
- The nothing is the BEGINNING of the book that Bastian is reading.
- The nothing is the beginning of a new fantastica (called fantasia in the movie), because Bastian has to give the Childlike Empress a new name the stop the nothing and when he does that the old fantastica disappears and a new fantastica begins.

The END
-the nothing is the end of the old fantastica.
-the nothing is the end. I can’t explain this part at all I think you really need to have read the book/seen the movie to understand but here’s my try:
Fantastica is a world just like ours only it’s a fantasy world
The nothing is nothing. It’s like parts of the world just go away. Creatures that live in fantastica know what has been there but it has just disappeared. What once was at that place is gone there is Nothing. Really nothing it’s not like other places have come closer, it’s not like you’re blind it’s just nothing.
+ the book is called the NeverENDING Story.


(sorry it’s all a bit hard to explain if you don’t know the neverending story..)




For the everyone who doesn't know the neverending story:

The book centers on a boy, Bastian Balthazar Bux, who is neglected by his father (who has sunken into despair after having lost his wife) and is bullied by his schoolmates. While running from some of them, Bastian bursts into the antique book store of Carl Conrad Coreander. Bastian steals a book from the store called The Neverending Story which Coreander has been reading; he hides in his school's attic, where he proceeds to read the story through the rest of the day and the night, not realizing that he has effectively become a part of it.

The book begins in Fantasia, when a "will-o'-the-wisp" goes to ask the Childlike Empress for help against the Nothing, which is spreading over the land. The Empress is ill, which is believed to be the cause of the Nothing (or vice versa); she sends the only person that can stop the Nothing, a boy warrior named Atreyu, to find a cure for her. Atreyu is a brave person, being considered a man even though he is a young boy of Bastian's age.

While on his quest, Atreyu meets characters such as Morla the Ancient, the incorporeal oracle Uyulala, and the gnomes Urgl and Engywook. Atreyu also meets Falkor, the luckdragon, who helped him along the way. After Falkor accidentally drops Atreyu in Spook City, Atreyu meets G'mork the werewolf, who has been following Atreyu since the early days of his quest, intending to kill him. In the course of his quest, Atreyu learns about the true nature of Fantasia and the Nothing: Fantasia is a representation of the dreams and fantasies of the real world; the Nothing and the sickness of the Childlike Empress are the effects of the lies humans use in their greed for power; it is the denial of dreams and fantasy which is destroying Fantasia. The only thing that can save Fantasia is a human child, who must give her a new name to start again the cycle of life in Fantasia.

Falkor and Atreyu return to the Ivory Tower, where the Childlike Empress lives. But since Bastian, in his lack of confidence, hesitates to take the step into Fantasia, the Childlike Empress confronts him with the fact that whatever he may think, he has already become part of the Neverending Story, and he must carry out his part in it. And Bastian does so by crying out the name he has chosen for the Empress: 'Moon Child'.

Bastian comes to Fantasia and meets the Empress; she asks him to help re-build Fantasia with his imagination, and he subsequently has many adventures of his own in his new world. With the help of the Auryn, a medallion that links him to the Empress, that gives him power over all the inhabitants of Fantasia and grants all of the boy's wishes, Bastian explores the Desert of Colors, battles the evil witch Xayide, and meets the three Deep Thinkers. Bastian becomes friends with Atreyu, but as Bastian continues to use the Auryn, every wish he makes takes away one of his memories and he begins to lose his own true self, and thus Atreyu becomes the more worried about him. The growing tension between the two is exploited by Xayide, who drives him to a lust for power. He is defeated in his attempt to have himself crowned as a Childlike Emperor by Atreyu, who leads a rebellion against him. Only when Bastian stumbles into a colony of humans who were trapped in Fantasia after having lost all their memories does he realize what he has almost lost.

Bastian sets out to find his own true wish - the only thing he can wish for without losing himself. After losing his remaining memories, Atreyu helps him, and Bastian then has his one true wish fulfilled and manages to cure his father as well. After he returns home, he decides to return the book to its owner, Carl Conrad Coreander, but the book disappears after Bastian returns from Fantasia. He explains this to Carl Conrad Coreander, who is interested in Bastian's adventures - he has been to Fantasia himself once, as it turns out - and asks him to keep in touch to talk about their respective experiences. As Bastian leaves to meet his father, Coreander muses that Bastian will indeed help others to get to Fantasia and help carry over more hopes into the human world.
[source: wikipedia: [link]