Virtually No Place Like Home

In my photographic travels I look for unique qualities that are expressed in the exterior of homes.  These qualities are part of what makes them homes, not just houses.  What makes a house a home are the  vestiges of culture, origins and identity invested in them. They provide a space to express the identities of their inhabitants.   In an age of manufactured consumer identity and group identity, Virtually No Place Like Home feels like the authentic “ Americana” from another time we might yearn for; a past where a home is a place of sanctuary, where we shed our masks and embrace the numerous identities that make us who we are, allowing us to safely express ourselves.  Upon closer investigation of this view of “Americana”  a crack in the facade is revealed.  Here the "reality" of each home and the landscape within which it appears is brought into question.  These images are constructions that assimilate fantasy with reality much like the identities we share through social media. They feel somewhat  believable on an aesthetic level as they explore the quirky and unique appearances of homes in the small towns and cities of America.  Yet there is a subtle feeling that there is something manufactured in these images as well.  But can we put our finger on exactly how and where the images depart from reality?  In this series the house/home becomes a metaphor for the self as expressed in our endless posting of selfies that portray a manufactured self, a fabricated life.  The house's exterior is the original social media posting and, as in the portrayal of the "selfie",  a "filter" that blurs the lines between the real and the fabricated has been employed in such a way as to leave us suspecting we've been duped but not knowing where or how.