HOME FOR NOW

Final Year Project MA Contemporary Photography

I was having a conversation with my friend as she looked at my work. She said to me:

“I’m not surprised your photography is so melancholic, you’re so sleep deprived, and, home deprived.”

I think melancholy happens to you when you're lost in transit. You can't readjust to your original location, but you don't quite know the frequency of where you are now. It sits in the space between home and displacement.

This exchange is at the heart of Home For Now.

This barrel has been sat empty in the living room of my aunt’s house for the past 12 months. We wait to fill it up with clothes, food items, old laptops and shoes for family and community members back in Gambia who don’t have these items.

For most people it’s odd to have a barrel in your living room. For us, it is not unusual. This is an important way of expressing our love for family back home. A symbol of love and loss

We all go around carrying things on us. Where do we drop these feelings? Who do we turn to or do we go on, lost in transit; new day same load?

Home For Now asks how we can lean on each other, ground one another and give space to our feelings and their complexities.