Home is a Feeling

Why photographs in your home are important

I will forever encourage people to take photographs in their homes - our homes are where we spend the majority of our time and where most of our memories will be made. I think it’s easy to feel like only the day trips, holidays and special occasions are worthy of photographs but, actually, home is where most of our milestones are met and where we form family rhythms and routines which are unique to us.

Home is a feeling. Home is what we long for when we leave it. Home, as it is in this moment, is what we will want to remember when our family is grown and everything has changed.

I am a very sentimental person and this is absolutely why I still live in the house I grew up in with my mum and siblings. I would be homesick if I left this house. I’ve grown up here and raised children here. I could point to the exact spot where my youngest brother took his first steps. I can also point to the place where each of my own children took their first steps. I took my first steps into motherhood here too. So many first steps.

My children’s heights are documented on the back of the pantry door. I joke that I will take that door with me if we ever leave this house but I have photographs of it (and the child measuring process) to be on the safe side.

I think people sometimes worry that their houses aren’t perfect. That there’s mess and clutter and hand prints on walls. One day the house will be clean. One day you’ll paint a room and a little hand won’t immediately leave a mark there. One day there won’t be lego everywhere and toast crumbs on the telly table. One day there will be a space where there used to be clutter and the house will feel a little emptier than you might like. This state of imperfect is so fleeting in its glorious chaos - it’s the bedside table piled high with bottles, baby wipes and nappies when your baby is first born. It’s a fridge door filled with paintings made at school. It’s the school project sunflower that sits in a yoghurt pot on the windowsill. It’s a bed that takes an age to make because it’s piled high with teddy bears. It’s beautiful and it’s your life. It’s beautiful because it’s uniquely yours so, if you want truly unique photographs, then have them taken at home.

Love,

Laura