Finding Home Series

www.photoemerge.com “Finding Home” Series - 2008 PhotoEmerge Exhibit, Curator Naveed Nour This ongoing photographic essay began in 2004 in response to the question I dread: Where do you live? When asked where I am from, I am hesitant to identify myself as a Bostonian. When I was a teenager and it came time to fly the nest, I wanted to reside beyond parental reach, but not so far that I couldn’t return when homesickness hit. I have set up house in Boston for nine years now, but I cannot, in my heart, call it home. My favorite place on earth is a yellow farmhouse in Maryland. I grew up there building secret forts in the woods, cross-country riding, and exploring the neighboring fields, usually unsupervised. The area is serenely beautiful, and I have developed a strong connection with my parent’s house and its surrounding countryside. I am motivated by memories - of hunting for treasures in the attic, spying on the farmers, or being alone in a field and hearing the dinner bell calling me home. I am once again exploring the dusty quarters of the house and uncharted corners of the cornfields, filing away memories and sifting through history for identity. Even in the new and changed I find familiarity, and at times I wonder if I ever actually left.