Idea Blog - Nostalgia

Nostalgia - homesickness, longing for something far away or long ago

"But nostalgic longing for a past is always also a longing for another place. Nostalgia can be a utopia in reverse."

Huyssen, Andreas. "Nostalgia For Ruins." Grey Room 23 (2006): 7. Print.

"...historian Charles Maier's pithy pronouncement that nostalgia is to memory like kitsch is to art."

Huyssen, Andreas. "Nostalgia For Ruins." Grey Room 23 (2006): 8. Print.

"In the case of ruins that which is allegedly present and transparent whenever authenticity is claimed is present only as an absence; it is the imagined present of a past that can now only be grasped in its decay. This makes the ruin subject to nostalgia."

Huyssen, Andreas. "Nostalgia For Ruins." Grey Room 23 (2006): 12. Print.

Bibliography:

Huyssen, Andreas. "Nostalgia For Ruins." Grey Room 23 (2006): 6-21. Print.

Nostalgia was brought to my attention, it was not a word that I considered myself to describe my work. I would not consider myself a history buff but love to hear stories from people that lived in the time. I would love to be able to hear the stories of the people that lived in the houses that I photograph but have been unable to get anywhere when contacting them. So I guess in a way "nostalgia" is the perfect word to describe the way that I feel when photographing the houses.