Scenes from home is a very select collection of images ranging from 2010 to the last time I visited my childhood home in December of 2021.

It is an exploration of how my volatile character at the time effected both myself and those around me. Mental illness that I put on the back burner “pretended it did not exist” Thinking “take a couple of pills & it’s all sorted”. Addictive behavior that became a pastime and being so absorbed in my own chaos that that I did not see how this affected those closest to me.

 

It seemed like our whole family had a different direction they were being pulled. Everyone under the same roof but apart from each other. My grandparents felt like “true north”. With 

their passing, navigating life felt unguided. They were a safe space that you could turn to in your darkest hour.

 

I left to Cape Town just after I had turned 30 and returned home in 2021 for a visit. Something felt very strange. A general decline but not only that, home didn’t feel like a place that I wanted to be. It was gone. Everyone needs a safe place to retreat to when everything goes to shit & I realized I no longer had that.

 

The images jump from snippets in my early to mid 20’s to that last visit and consist of a mixture of candid family portraits & spaces. Which are meant to convey a retrospective look into the past and a realization that I hold on to each of these images with a certain nostalgic curiosity that I can’t shake. Trying to make sense of the past while trying to remain optimistic about the future.

 

This isn’t written well but guess it’s important that I wrote it.

 

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