Home Studies - Work in Progress

In Home Studies I examine the multifaceted concept “home” in order to explore its importance, the many meanings it holds, and the multiplicity of responses it activates. The project was prompted by my own unanticipated immigration experience, and the queries and reflections it has generated.

In 2014, after living in Minneapolis, Minnesota for 32 years, raising my family and working there, my husband and I sold our house and moved to Calgary, Alberta, to pursue new jobs. I had not previously entertained the idea that I would choose to become uprooted and leave behind members of my family, my friends, my ties to community, and my comfortable longstanding habits, routines, and patterns of behavior. I let go of a beloved house in which I had expected to live out the rest of my days. Rather than having weekly brunches and get-togethers with my adult children, I would primarily interact with them in virtual space via the Internet.

Before I moved, I did not fully appreciate what it would feel like to land, disconnected, in a new and unfamiliar place. In Home Studies I use auto-ethnography and my experience as a newcomer to Canada as a starting point and a launchpad. Through this work I hope to discover and convey new insights that can help expand and deepen our understanding of what it means to be at home. 

The project is organized around a series of questions that provide me with a preliminary map to guide my work. As the project proceeds, I will link each of the questions listed below to the photographic investigations they have inspired.