Claims on Living Space

 

Parking Space

 

 

Design Area

 

Unwanted Home Addition

 

Bonsai Tools

Designated Studio

 

This is my series of documentary style photos. The title of the series is "Claims on Living Space". The idea for this series immediately came to mind as a series of photographs because the subject matter is made up of all images of places that members of my family live. I believe the context of these photos is crucial to understanding the goal of my series. The images all aim to depict the collateral effects that our hobbies or interests can have on our living space and furthermore on the relationships with those whom which we share it. I chose to make this my theme because it has been an obvious part of my life from my childhood. The bottom three photographs show various areas of the house where my uncle (a watercolor artist and bonsai enthusiast) works on his borderline obsessive hobbies of bonsai and watercolor. To me this photographs are not simply an artist's work area but also an intrusion on the living space of his family members as has been made aparent to me from spending a good deal of time here. While some may find his hobbies interesting and requiring of skill, his wife does not. In this way these areas embody my observation on the lengths individuals will go to to indulge in thier own interests even if it is to cause reverberating effects on their relationships. Similarly, the top image is a photograph of the garage at my parents' house. Analogous to my uncle's ardent interests, my father's lifelong passion for weightlifting has encroached upon the living space at his home. For most of my memory no one has been able to pull a car into the garage due to the large amount of weightlifting equiptment occupying the expanse. His interest of lifting has caused effects on his living space and to an extent his relationships with those who are uninterested in the endeavor but share the same area as a home. The second image is a photograph of my brother's room at Purdue where he is a design student. His bed is strewn with his supplies for all of his design projects. It fits well into the series because while the other images show adjoining portions of houses this is a photograph of a place where an individual would sleep. This shows a more direct effect of my brother's pursuits on the place that he resides.

Brent Mayfield