stella kalaw :: photographs

My photographs speak about the absence of family. My roots are from Manila where I lived in one home with my parents and siblings. Our tight knit family celebrated traditions together with aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins for several years. When we migrated to America over a decade ago, the meaning of home and family unknowingly began to alter and assimilation to the American life took priority. Several years had gone by until one day I felt I had lost its meaning. The Family Spaces project was born out of a longing to be close to my family and a need to grapple with a new definition of home as it relates to my life today. The work is a visual representation of interconnected lives experienced in different regions of the world. Viewing one personal space next to the other creates the illusion that they are part of one structure, although they are interiors located in different cities. Images of personal belongings hint at my family’s presence, juxtaposing the familiarity and intimacy of the everyday with a quiet solitude and loneliness.