Idiomatic Expressions of the Northwest Vernacular

Idiomatic Expressions of the Northwest Vernacular compiles a number of dwellings with the aim of considering what might be considered a regional architecture.

A couple months after finishing my BA in photography, settled back into Seattle, the COVID-19 pandemic began. During that time, having moved back home, one of the ways to maintain some sanity was to walk the neighborhoods around where I lived with my Mom. It was a way to see new areas of cities we had once thought familiar.

After having spent a fair chunk of time abroad, I suddenly saw the architectural styles of the Northwest with new eyes and new appreciation. Were there certain regional characteristics that made a house feel like it really belonged here? Did that pertain to specific times?

Navigating primarily through intuition, I shot a fair number of houses over 2020 and 2021, processing the images in black and white over intervening stints before releasing a zine in 2025.