Finding that Home is Neither Here nor There by Kristen Fecker Peroni

In 2009 my husband and I, feeling the sting of the troubled economy, uprooted our family and moved across country, with the hope that a temporary job I was taking might turn into something more permanent. Only a few days after arriving in Michigan we ended up in the hospital when a member of my immediate family was diagnosed with cancer. Things only continued to get worse and a string of unusually bad luck left us dumbfounded, wondering what else could possibly go wrong. Informed by this course of events, and with the hope of connecting the dots, I turned my camera towards my family, documenting our journey.

To this day, our life continues to contain moments of pure joy but more often than not, they are hidden under a blanket of exhaustion and heartache. For close to three years now, my husband and I have struggled to continue to provide “normal” for the sake of our children, but in our imperfection, sometimes we fail. The hidden truth of our recent history is subtly layered in each photograph but does not define this moment as a pictorial representation for our future. Although daily life has become defined by two things I never imagined - weekly trips to the cancer center and a full-time job of trying to find a full-time job - I am determined to move beyond this moment, no matter how long it takes.

The spaces we inhabit stretch further beyond the walls of our home. Our lives become comfortable when we are familiar with the roads we travel and the faces around us. In the series, Finding that Home is Neither Here nor There, the metaphorical foundation of home is kept strong through tradition and routine, when four walls no longer stand. The reality of it all is that life is fleeting and that each moment is temporary. These photographs become the record of a building block that is already underneath our feet – our foundation for the future. They also hold within them an intrinsic connection to the inevitable end of life, a moment that can come without warning, or one we have time to dwell on for a lifetime.

Kristen Fecker Peroni is a Chelsea, MI based artist.
To see more of Kristen's work, please visit her website