Come In From the Cold

Come In From the Cold

I've been thinking about the meaning of home a lot lately, and what that means to me personally. Certainly I have been desiring to spend more time at home in the last few years than ever before, whether that is a result of aging, an aversion to human drama, or the cumulative, deteriorating effects of a long daily commute I am not certain, but perhaps it's a little of all of it. In any event, the concept, the human need for home is the general sense of this image, at least to me. We take our pieces of home whenever we go out: a cell phone to remain in contact, a packed lunch, whatever it is, these items provide comfort on a subconscious and well as conscious level as reminders and links to a sense of home.

Home can be a warm place, but for many it can be a nightmare, a cold, violent experience, and still, we have that need to call something home, and it overrides almost all other considerations. I wanted this image to be simple and stark, not to have home be perceived as cold and barren, but to get back to basics so to speak. Working with this model is always a rewarding experience, and he was the first model I ever worked with, 18 months ago. So, in a way, working with him again is a comfort for me, because, while working with new models is often rewarding, the ones that have been around the longest make the process of shooting much less tense for me. I also wanted something that was decidedly more "photorealistic" because often my imagery is regarded as something other than photography. This is true and it isn't. Yes, they are manipulated, and yes they are composites, but they are all, always, photographic, and they are my photographs.

Since there is little to dissect here, I will say that the stone wall texture was from the Quabbin reservoir, and the texture on his skin is from the same wall. I wanted to convey a sense of unity between the man and the walls of home, and as barren and stark as it is, he is sleeping suspended on the wall, much like an animal, a nod toward our primordial need for home.

The title comes from the song by Joni Mitchell by the same name.

model: Ed Barron