An Ordinary Eden

These are experiences that remain hidden to most. Experiences of precarity, of instability, of inadequate support that damages lives.

Project Website
ordinaryeden.com

Exhibition Street Level Photoworks

National Portrait Gallery Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize Exhibition 2022

Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award 2022 - honourable mention

Supported by Creative Scotland

An Ordinary Eden contemplates the universal need to belong, lay roots, and be connected to people and place.

To be without a permanent home is both a tangible and an emotional experience, where the necessity for safety and security accompanies a need to belong. In An Ordinary Eden, individuals across Scotland offer an insight into the practical and psychosocial impact of past or current homelessness on their lives.

‘Home’ can be both a sense of comfort -  inside one’s mind and place of residence -  and a connection on the outside, in a community. It is belonging to something larger than oneself whilst having security and hope for a better future.

In this work, each individual’s idea of ‘home’ is not a wish for a future idealised scenario, an unattainable fantasy. Rather, it is the ordinary, the everyday that is sought: safety, security, stability.

This work is rooted in an appeal to our basic humanity, our compassion. That the impact of being without a home – in all the ways that can happen – is understood not only in an immediate practical manner but also on an emotional level. The need to belong and have meaningful connections with others. We should all be able to do that in a society that cares, in a society that works for all. 

This is not a search for utopia, an unreachable fantasy. It is the simple wish for a regular life. A pursuit for each individual’s Ordinary Eden.

“Where do I want to go? Somewhere slightly better than here”

Background & final thoughts

Further Reading:

Aesthetica

Guardian

Hundred Heroines

Royal Photographic Society

The Big Issue

The Herald

Shelter Scotland

De Correspondent Collab

I began working on An Ordinary Eden in 2019 leading on from topics explored in previous projects. I wanted to further reflect on people’s sense of home and belonging. More so, I wanted to look at what happened when the ability to have a stable home and sense of place was interrupted by circumstances, when life’s journeys were somewhat complex and imperfect, when we don’t always lead a life we thought - or hoped - would happen.

Specifically, when ‘home’ becomes a place of transience, when accommodation is temporary, what are the practical implications and emotional ramifications that being without a permanent home creates? Were there traceable roots, obvious patterns and how did society treat those in need?

All the people photographed had different stories on housing and home. All have been homeless at some point; some still were throughout the project. And all had different paths that brought them to their present, with histories that were multi-layered, complex, and nuanced.

Over the 4 years of An Ordinary Eden, I met people whose childhoods had been unstable, or who had experienced profound inequality. Others had needs for mental health or addictions that required a joined-up approach of current systems of support. Other stories came from places of enforced escape, to save their lives in some cases. From individuals fleeing years of domestic abuse to escaping a war zone and forced migration. To not have a home happens for many reasons, how society responds is the focus in this work. What was clear was the amount of time – the years – that people were in these situations. And it was quite apparent that it was needless years lost because support was not adequate.

So, I could ask myself, if there were patterns or traceable roots, but in some ways the more important finding was that the systems as they stand in society do not work fast enough or with the dignity and compassion that every human deserves.  

Thanks are due to the many people I met and photographed throughout this work, for the generous sharing of stories with me, and for the time we spent together. It has been a privilege to be part of that.