“When is home”

This photo exhibition includes portraits and personal interviews to find answers to the questions: when does the place where you live became your home? When do you start to feel the place where you live is home?

I left my home country of Russia in 2022. My husband and I spent half a year in different countries, waiting for our US visas, until in March 2023 we got them and came to Fort Collins.  

We didn’t choose where to go.

My husband got a job offer in Fort Collins. I love this city, but after two years I’m still asking myself: Is Fort Collins my new home? How long does it take to feel the place where I live is home? Do I need to cultivate the feeling of home, or will it come naturally? Is my hometown in the middle of Russia still my home? Is it possible to have several places you call home? 

What does it mean — home? 

I’ve looked for answers for these questions. 

I’ve met a lot of people here in Fort Collins. Some of them, like me, are immigrants. Some are naturalised citizens, some are first generation Americans or multiple generation Americans. 

All people have their own story. But I realized that questions about home are relevant to different people in different situations: not only moving to a new country, but even if they just moved to a new state or new city or still live in the place where they were born. 

For all people the answers will be different. We all have our own way to the feeling of home.

This photo exhibition intends to honor the diversity of “ways to home.” It is my artistic research as a photographer and former journalist. It took a year to prepare this project. During this time, I changed. In immigration, you change all the time.

When I came up with the idea for this project, I was planning to take black-and-white portraits with a black background for all participants. That was how I felt—very dramatic. But when I started taking portraits, I realized that I felt different.

I don’t  want to make it a drama.

The way to home is not just drama, and not only black. It’s different. Sometimes it’s colorful, for sure — especially if you let it be colorful.

I decided to change the concept from black-and-white photos to color photos with colorful backgrounds. This is how I feel now.

I hope my project will help those who struggle to cultivate their feeling of home 

and make people who haven’t been aware, think about it.

Dania Zhuravleva Gaisina