Photo Essay

The idea of "community" is somewhat ambiguous in my opinion. I think that it is difficult to pinpoint the specific reasons a community is the way it is. I suppose that it really comes down to the individual. For this reason, I find the home to be perhaps the most important and compelling part of the community. Being in college means that we are all (most of us) away from home and attempting to recreate that sense of home we lack in our cheap and non-personal student housing. This school year, I moved into a house with a handful of my friends, and it has been really awesome. There is a whole different atmosphere and sense of community when living in a house. Apartment living lends itself to an entirely different community lifestyle. Everyone in your complex kind of melts into one big group, and everyone is always moving out, and new people are always moving in. In a house, there is a more permanent feeling. Depending on your landlady/lord, you can generally get more freedom and a longer leash. You aren't ever bothered by your upstairs neighbors or by the constant house-guests who so easily and often bombard apartments. When you live in a house, your community stops being people who live on top of, beside, under, and all around you. Instead, your roommates become your community. Your house becomes your personal playground of expression and individualism. For my photo essay, I have taken a few pictures which embody the feel and personality of our home.

One of the pictures is a portrait of my roommate Kate, done by her ex boyfriend. We affectionately call the painting "Bald Kate", because he painted your usual normal-head-of-haired self completely bald. It's creepy. And we like it.

Another picture is of a big domed-glass portrait of a baby. We tell everyone who comes over that it is president Uchdorf. They almost always believe us. I don't know why they are so gullible, but we really get a kick out of Baby Dieter.

There is also a picture of the outside of our house. Because our family room has two huge windows, everyone can see everything we are doing from the inside. I think this is an interesting way to be a part of the community. In one way, it includes us in the community by putting us in the spectacle. On the other hand, I think it separates us. Like we are our own thing, and we can look out and see the rest of the world and distance ourselves from it. When taking the pictures, I chose not to clean anything up. I wanted to give everyone an accurate and genuine representation of our home. So I'm not proud of the mess, but I am proud to call this place home. I feel happy, comfortable, and involved here. This house is my community, and I love it.