Photo Essay Artist Statement

The experience of putting together my photographical essay was a very interesting one. When I arrived to shoot for this project, I didn’t really have an idea of what I wanted to focus on. Then it became clear to me that even though we had a tour of the HomeSource Center, seeing it once again was essential for me to understand just how much it means to the community that L.A.N.D. serves.

I had a long conversation with James, a worker at the HomeSource Center and a longtime resident of this area, in which he told me all about the importance that the center has on the residents that make use of it everyday. He expressed the joy and optimism that he has in his everyday work. He told me that the most rewarding thing about working at HomeSource was the ability to help the community that he is part of and seeing how much the resources available make the community a better place. He referred to the HomeSource Center as “a little gold mine” in order to describe how the residents of his community appreciate and consider the importance of the center in their lives. Being able to document James’s feelings in my essay was a main goal of mine. I chose to title my essay “Little Gold Mine” in order to document one of the most motivating things that James said to describe HomeSource and its value to the community.

The camera, as an instrument of investigation, made it easy to capture the pleasant atmosphere of the Center. It allowed me to document the feelings of accomplishment that the Center has so far in restoring the community.

My essay is put together in the same chronological order as my visit. I chose to present my essay as a combination of a story and strict documentation. I describe the context of the photographs in regards to what James was telling me about the specific objects documented in them. The captions that I included with the photographs have a specific connection to my conversation with James. In this way, I also document what he told me about HomeSource in a direct, but personal level.