Claire French
There's No Place Like Home (Series)
DESCRIPTION
Sometimes spending quality time with those around can be an antidote to the depressive condition we all experience, and which has been so pervasive recently.
Lockdown meant that families were suddenly thrown together, with no escape, and sometimes it felt suffocating that there was nowhere else to go.
And the sudden removal of coping mechanisms made dealing with depression much harder. The children also had their own issues that they were struggling with. They are teenagers and their parents are the last people they want to spend all their time with right now, but all of a sudden, they are stuck with us, albeit spending most of their time in their rooms on a screen, only coming down for dinner.
I wanted to find something that gave us a moment to bond over, something we could collaborate on and give us something to smile over. And it was a way to express my thoughts, concerns, and feelings, as regards the fragile symbiosis inside a family.
The nostalgia, for that innocence of toddlers playing hide and seek, believing can’t see them if they can’t see you, is a route to reconnection with my teenagers.
AUTHOR
Claire French is a British artist based in Manchester. She has recently completed her MfA (Photography) at the Belfast School of Art. Her most recent project 'Oikos' has recently been shown at Belfast Exposed as part of the group exhibition 'A Lightness of Touch'.
Academic
• MfA Photography with Distinction, University of Ulster, 2021.
Exhibitions & Awards
• There’s No Place Like Home, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Sydney, Mass Isolation Australia, August-October 2021
• Oikos, ‘A Lightness of Touch’ at Belfast Exposed Gallery, Belfast, June-July 2021
• There’s No Place Like Home, FORMAT 21 Festival, Derby UK, June 2021
• There’s No Place Like Home, FORMAT21 #massisolationFORMAT online, June 2021
• There’s No Place Like Home, Auckland Festival: @massisolationFORMAT, online, June 2020
• There’s No Place Like Home, Ballarat Foto #massisolationFORMAT online, June 2020
• Self Portrait Photographer of the Year, British Photography Awards, 2019
• Internal Voices, Hull International Photography Festival, 2019
• Home Farm, ‘Home’ at Hull International Photography Festival, 2019
• Internal Voices - ‘Because She Can’ at Festival Pil'ours, Saint Gilles Croix de Vie, France
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