if you lived here, you'd be home now Photo Gallery by ruthemily at pbase.com

if you lived here, you'd be home now

The idea for the project came to me about a year ago. I had moved from what had been my home for 8 years, into a hospital for 5 months, then out as a homeless person, then into a hostel/'safe house' for vulnerable women, and then finally into my own flat. And I have moved since. It really made me question the idea of 'home', what it means....where it is we make the distinction between house and home. From my hospital admission day until about a month after I finally got into my flat, I didn't have access to a camera at all. It was an 8 month period of frustration, without an outlet through which I could explore how I felt about the systems I was in.

So, last summer, when I had my camera and strength back, I set out to explore a few options. I didn't feel like the stuff I got was coherent enough and I put the project on the back burner for a while. But on Saturday when I was going through my old shots, I found the original shots of this place and realised that all along the basis of exactly what I wanted to do was there and waiting for me to rediscover it. That's why I went back on Sunday, to complete the photography element of the entire process.

The photos in the series challenge norms and explores the concept of what is 'home'. The photos act as a representation of a place inhabited, and look at what it means to 'dwell'. I leave it open to the viewer to bring themselves to the images, and take away what they can.

PLEASE VIEW THIS AS A SLIDESHOW.

comment |

milx		28-Nov-2007 20:40
very good work, the colours are so strong and the ruins well i just love them too but i make different kinds of pictures including them, mine ideas of the ruins are as much as anyones really : )) they reprasent the life once lived, i would say the life once taken but that would be easily interpreted wrong, for i mean 'life that took place (there)' .. i love your style : )) home is for me a place where i need to be, if that would be a house i'd be happy about it and if that had to be street i'd be bitter about it and would embrace the ruins in a different manner lol .. ruins arent what we ruined or what collapsed, it is what we lived through ! same goes for humans .. take care

Giancarlo Guzzardi		18-Jul-2007 09:04
nice, fascinating, particular gallery and concept

Guest		04-Jul-2007 11:28
Well. Not home sweet home in the usual sense. And it is interesting how your work searches the beauty in it, the slices of life surviving there.

Kevin Bishop		13-May-2007 21:54
Great set of images with an excellent theme, well thought and seen!

Guest		02-May-2007 18:04
This is amazing. Knowing you through RH has left me knowing a little of what you have experienced emotionally, and I suppose in a sense I feel some of the emotions that these photos express. The inner strength to find the hope, the life (to me seen in the flowers), the past that remains with us (the abandoned doll and the desolation and decaying elements of the building), yet somehow, despite how others may interpret what we see before us we find it within ourselves to fight for th hope that no one else can see for us... Katie xx

Glendower		02-May-2007 14:22
Excellent photo essay, wonderful, powerful images. Bravo!

Guest		30-Apr-2007 21:01
i would love to take you to a house i know,you would adore it, reminds me so much of this

Lisa Sullivan		05-Apr-2007 13:37
So, I'd just about done pondering this gallery and was all ready to post a few words, and then I read what you'd written, and I've started pondering even more! Heh. I'd made the connection about 'house and home', but never thought to relate it to all the moving about and unease you've felt over the last couple of years. It seems so obvious now that you mention it. But, I guess what I wanted to say still applies: I look at these pictures and the desolation is evident. The environment is broken, dead, rotten, used, uninhabitable. Despite that, we see glimpses of life; splashes of light and colour, plant life, and lastly and bizarrely (!) evidence of a tenant! This is home for someone, as dead and lifeless as it may seem. The shell is broken, but the soul of the place (and the lodger) remains. The shoes and bag in the last image reminded me so much of ritual...of someone coming home and slinging their bad and shoes down on the chair/sofa and collapsing with a sigh. The environment is personalised - not just with an obvious (and decaying) physical history, but with an emotional one, too (shown by the doll?). Someone's whose soul, spirit and emotional strength is very much alive lives here. So with that in mind, perhaps 'home' is defined by the inhabitants and the strength of their character and heart, rather than the quality of their bricks and bathroom fixtures? I'm so glad you re-discovered this, Ruthie x

Kal Khogali		05-Apr-2007 13:14
A disturbing journey Ruth. I can't relate to it, because I have never experienced it, but the way you introduce elements progressively is shocking...is it possible to be abndoned yet still inhabited? This gallery rides that line. K

Phil Douglis		04-Apr-2007 19:43
A fascinating concept, Ruthie -- and the gradual shift from documentation to expressive interpretation challenges the viewer to see "home" with new eyes. You make the viewer see beauty in ugliness, and the concept of home changes before our eyes. It is not the physical house that makes the difference -- it is what we bring to it that makes a home.

Christine P. Newman		01-Apr-2007 00:07
There is so much to be said about this. Some people call it home. We feel the human spirit (and misery) through the way you choose to exhibit your photos.

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