Homebound

Artist Statement

After moving back into my childhood home in the spring of 2020, I began to notice how family and memory have played increasingly important roles in my life as I get older. Over the past year I have focused on my relationship with my family and connecting with my past, as well as examined how the notion of home extends beyond a physical structure. Through this work, I take a closer look at my surroundings to consider how history and memories are retained in objects, photographs, and spaces. The objects I have chosen to photograph all have significance to my family in that they were handed down, obtained after a death, or otherwise gifted and will likely continue in this cycle beyond my generation. Including family photos in this project connects to the close relationship photography, death, and memory have, in addition to accentuating the passage of time over generations. By photographing my home using the frames of windows to inform my compositions, I invite the viewer to consider the bounds of one’s home as well as how we reconstitute our definition of home once we have left it. These photographs consider how my family’s history has compounded over time, functioning as a palimpsest where each individual has the autonomy to write their own history but is always influenced by those who came before. Drawing parallels between the past and present through the activation of memories and history connects me to my family lineage and establishes a definition of home that relies less on a physical space and more on a feeling of connectedness.