Home with the Hassy, and Christine Tran

I’m headed home later today for Mother’s Day weekend, and I’ve decided to bring a Hasselblad. I’ve never shot shot square; I’m a sucker for medium format though, and generally choose between my old Pentax 67 or my Mamiya 7II. But this trip is feeling square, and I’m lucky enough to have a rental house in the form of photographer Andrew French, who is tremendously generous and has loaned me a 500 EL/M and about 25 rolls of maybe-expired AGFA Optima 100. Should be an interesting weekend.

I think my interest in the home/square combo could very well have something to do with Christine Tran’s series, Homesick. I think I pretty much just want to take these pictures. Tran nails the nostalgia without it feeling treacly, and her narratives are lovely and filmic. I’m into those grays. From her artist statement:

“A couple of years ago, I moved from one coast to another, away from a place that held all the signifiers of home. As a direct result, this series of photographs emerged as an exploration of memory, nostalgia, loss and longing. They are also about the confusion of physically being in one place, while belonging socially and emotionally to another. The images are of people and places close to me, yet they are staged. Like the effects of distance and the daydream of home, the distinction between memory and reality is blurred, and my photographs exist as both fact and fiction.”

planted in bed