In our days, individuals constantly move around the world, changing the place where they live and work. They settle down for a year, a month, or even a week in a new place, only to move afterwards to another location. Transience has become a way of life for an increasing number of people. For them, ‘home’ no longer has anything to do with a particular point of the planet.
In replying to the question "What is home?", Pico Iyer said
I pull out from my pocket a picture of a longtime partner. I speak of the Benedictine monastery to which I retreat four times a year. I think of the English language, my companion for every moment of my life. I cite the books and ideas and loyalties I take everywhere I go. Home-the need for solid ground-is as vital as it ever was. But now more and more of us are obliged to find it on the move. For millions of us, the journey becomes the destination. And a part of us—at sea, in the air, in passage or in passageway—wishes that there were a simpler way home.
In the past, people had a very precise sense of where they belong. If they were asked: "Where do you come from?" they would probably have a straightforward answer. My own grandparents, for example, had never left their “home” country; their ‘home’ was their ‘house’. Their roots were embedded in a piece of soil.
The question “What is home?” inspires today very different reactions, than it did only 20 years ago. Transience has driven us to loose the sense of place. In that process, we have gained a sense of us. Today, ‘Home’ is an inner-self construction that we carry wherever we go. It is a collection of memories, values, assumptions, priorities and invisible qualities we keep in us. Today, Home is us.
What is home? is a series of landscape photographs where the horizon is playing the primary role. In each image is quoted a sentence from the answers I got to the question ‘what is home?’ This question was sent to a list of people by email.
In replying to the question "What is home?", Pico Iyer said
I pull out from my pocket a picture of a longtime partner. I speak of the Benedictine monastery to which I retreat four times a year. I think of the English language, my companion for every moment of my life. I cite the books and ideas and loyalties I take everywhere I go. Home-the need for solid ground-is as vital as it ever was. But now more and more of us are obliged to find it on the move. For millions of us, the journey becomes the destination. And a part of us—at sea, in the air, in passage or in passageway—wishes that there were a simpler way home.
In the past, people had a very precise sense of where they belong. If they were asked: "Where do you come from?" they would probably have a straightforward answer. My own grandparents, for example, had never left their “home” country; their ‘home’ was their ‘house’. Their roots were embedded in a piece of soil.
The question “What is home?” inspires today very different reactions, than it did only 20 years ago. Transience has driven us to loose the sense of place. In that process, we have gained a sense of us. Today, ‘Home’ is an inner-self construction that we carry wherever we go. It is a collection of memories, values, assumptions, priorities and invisible qualities we keep in us. Today, Home is us.
What is home? is a series of landscape photographs where the horizon is playing the primary role. In each image is quoted a sentence from the answers I got to the question ‘what is home?’ This question was sent to a list of people by email.
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