Home is Where

35mm film
2016

Home is a familiar place.

But over time, the definition of “home” has become less and less clear, solid, close. My memories of my childhood home are not as clear as they used to be, and that home is not the same as it used to be. I have changed, and home has changed. The familiar has become unfamiliar, suddenly strange and difficult to recognize in the blur of uprooting, growth, and change.

This project is a collection of images of my childhood home, abstracted in a way that makes them difficult to recognize, yet somehow strangely familiar. The softness of the photos is the result of a technique called “freelensing,” which involves detaching the lens from the camera and then taking the picture while holding the lens in front of the camera body. This throws the entire image out of focus, creating a beautifully soft, abstract medley of values and shapes. In a way, the process of freelensing mirrors the detachment of stepping back from what I once knew as “home,” the process of growing up and growing out of home as I have known it.