Family Photos

Since I’ve been playing around with ideas of home, I thought it would be interesting to apply this with old family photographs. This HAS been done before MANY times, but what I find interesting is that these photographs surprise me. They represent my parents and grandparents in a time before I was born,  and they exhibit a similarity in age between my mother and I. In a way, I am exploring those who make me at home, while at the same time investigating this connection between times with images of my mother from the past.  

Project Proposal

My past projects were created with the ideas of human traces; something indicating a human presence was in the space I have documented. I‘ve decided to take a step back to focus in on something I feel passionate about; the ‘something’ that has made me interested in this idea of left over presence. I find the word home plays a big part in my daily life. It seems to be a constant thought running through my mind: What or who is home? What do you need in order for you to feel at home?  At the same time, what does the word home to me? Is it a physical presence that creates a home? These questions are the reason why I am interested on the traces of human presence in a place that could once have been considered home, especially if it is generally not thought to be a domestic, or living space.  If it’s abandoned, or lacking a physical human presence is it still a home? Has this human presence left behind a memory of home? Is it a home because of this presence?

I‘ve been researching into ideas of home. It is a very general topic, but I’m interested in my interaction with these spaces and presences while recording it all with my camera. I believe that if I break this investigation into three projects: focusing on architectural forms: buildings and spaces that are not a typical domestic setting, but have this home-esque feel to them (two places I already have in mind are studios – artist and yoga practice), as well as portraiture: maybe using people to display their ideas of home (something I haven’t quite figured out, but have some sort of idea involving capturing the act of being at home…) and finally a third project involving the forms of home: emphasizing things (objects, memories, literal forms) that remind us of home through  I also believe that in using this camera of older technology and a very important part of the education and development of the photograph, I am in a way, connecting with the ‘home’ of photography. 

I have another idea that I think is almost a self portrait (something I’m not used to doing) involving the use of instant fuji film to sympathize with old Polaroid photographs I found of my family, (parents, aunts & uncles as well as grandparents) that I am interested in comparing. Most of these photographs I found depict moments in the lives of my family members that I have found to be surprising or a characteristic that I find unusual of them. I haven’t quite figured out how I am to use this to my advantage, but what I do know is that I want to use this surprise of mine to expose my idea of home.   

MOST Recent: Old Bathroom

Working with my Projects of Interest … 
Using a large format camera and instant fuji-roid film I wanted to begin investigating ideas of home and how I react in this space. It’s very new and very basic, but I managed to take these photographs in a hotel room where a business man was staying. I was interested in how he considers this home, especially since it is almost an instant home. This is also why I wanted to experiment with instant film as well as long exposures to play around with ideas of time in this “home.” I didn’t have enough time as I needed to fufill this project, but, I consider it a starting point.