In View From My Family Home, I explore landscapes around the homes of four generations of my family members, taking a personal view of a major alteration in America’s culture: the shift from a rural to an urban-based population. This project was engendered by reports that of my parents’ generation, between one-half and one-third of Americans lived on farms, while of my own generation, less than 2% do. My personal view of this particular intersection of nature and culture is this project’s root.

View From My Family Home looks at these landscapes as evidence of a way of life. It considers how we choose to live, the values of place we have inherited, the range of possibilities, and the limitations on choices available to us. I am interested in how we either struggle against or accept those limitations. This work contemplates both the interior and the exterior landscape, and our responsibility of place both public and private.

These images are taken from the inside looking out the windows of 3 generations of my family. They record a way of life; landscapes that members of one American family have both inherited and created. The pictures tell a story of migration from country to city, the loss of the family farm, and a transformation of this country’s culture from rural to urban. They speak to limitations placed on us by geography and culture, and how some accept those limitations while others struggle against them. The transmutation of “home” touches each of us in a deeply personal way. It’s an experience broadly shared in American culture and throughout the world.

“The home is a private place, situated in the public arena.  These images encourage us to consider both the interior and exterior landscape.”