Anna Gouveia
Wherever you call home, make it your own.
At age 19, I made peace with permanently moving out of my family home and I was adjusting to a yearly shuffle between dorm rooms. I was prepared for the spin cycle of trying to define a sense of home as I expected to move from place to place for the majority of my twenties. Then, every notion I had of my future changed as a global pandemic sent me and college students everywhere packing in the spring of 2020. My world, which was validated through the speed of constant obligations, came to a complete halt.
In these newfound moments of stillness, I began to look deeper into the notion of home. My family had moved in a year prior to the start of COVID-19 and I found myself in a home that I had previously spent less than 20 nights in. Moving into a new place I found that the objects that had surrounded me since my childhood helped to transform the unfamiliar into a space of comfort. Although the mirror I have looked into since age eight does not catch the light at the same time of day anymore, looking into it now I can forget where I am and can be transported to the halls of my childhood home. It feels almost at home–but something remains missing.
Inspired by the work of David Hilliard, I explore the relationship between the home and self-expression while seeking to exploit a sense of belonging through diptych and triptych style photographs. The multiple part image format allows me to explore intimate spaces while drawing attention to the little details that make a room feel like home.
I am not interested in simply documenting the private domain, I want to capture the feeling of home. That feeling is almost indescribable, but it feels simultaneously comfortable and fleeting. We’re constantly reinventing “home” as we move through life and change empty rooms into a safe haven designed for us and by us.