Experimentation – Homesickness

I began this project thinking I was originally going to focus on the four stages of homesickness. I wanted to do a project that resonated with me personally and at the time I thought this was the most true topic. The four stages of homesickness are “the calm before the storm”, “the crumble”, “denial and regret” and “drifting” (B., Simonti, 2019). I accumulated lots of research on this topic and at the time thought I was super passionate. A biology major at the University at Albany wrote a paper on the subject and all of the feelings she described were relatable emotions. She discusses how at the start phase one is all about being super excited that you’re in a new place and you’re living “in the now”. She described phase two as being stuck in the feeling of “missing the last step on the stair” and panicking but that panic doesn’t end (B., Simonti, 2019). The next phase was could only be describes as “hell”. Plain and simple, you are miserable and regret all of your choices. The final phase was described as being stranded at sea and drifting around. She said the only destination she was looking for was home (B., Simonti, 2019). This seemed like the perfect project for me as an abroad student, but come February I realized I took a path of my own. While I defiantly felt the first there stages to an extent in semester one, I was now more than content. Rather than wishing to go home, I found home abroad. I, therefore, decided to ditch this topic as I became super uninspired when it came to images that were supposed to reflect me being miserable because I wasn’t. I did, however run a test shoot with this concept in mind. I attempted to focus on isolation, but what I really got out of this shoot was being able to understand my camera and adjust the technical features.