PROJECT: A FAMILY HOME
My Grandad designed the home my Dad grew up in – it was an unusual house, a bungalow laid out in a V: the bathroom and bedrooms to the left, the kitchen and living areas to the right.
A firm believer in ‘make do and mend’, very little changed in the 30 years I knew it, when we visited each Easter. We grew up, made our own homes but that house, those rituals and almost us too, when we were there, somehow remained almost frozen in time.
Over the years I took many photographs of all the little details that I knew so well. Little pieces of our family history and the curious devices Grandad constructed to make things easier – the original ‘life hacker’.
When Grandad died, as well as the grief of losing him I felt a great sadness that the special place by the sea would be gone and I needed to document it. I photographed each room, evidence of a time so different from today, and found it calming at a time of sorrow.
The house is stripped and sold but I feel comfort that I can still see how it used to be.
