This project is a visual survey of local homes, which I photographed during my graduate studies in North America in the mid-1990s. I was intrigued by the way people arranged their personal habitats and the resulting unique cultural fusion.
“Homes” explores the contradiction between the ideal and the norm of the living culture in that society. In some instances, the living space seems comfortable yet ominous. Domestic artifacts transcend their banality and impersonal design, becoming awkward and even eerie. The scale of objects is sometimes off, and incidental furnishings occasionally look monumental. In certain rooms, function dominates over aesthetics, while elsewhere the arrangement is determined by personal style and consumer culture.
These images of domestic environments are psychological portraits of the residents, inevitably revealing some of their background information. “Homes” prompts viewers to question the context of the interiors and imagine the character of these remote inhabitants.
~ Gretchen So