Grandma's House is eight pairs of photo- graphs shot at identical spots in identical condominium units. Specific- ally, these are the condominiums of my paternal and maternal grandparents, who moved from homes in the neighborhood where they raised their families to the same nearby condominium complex around 1990 and purchased identical units in separate buildings. This series primarily concerns nature versus nurture, and asks to what degree similar people select similar living quarters and what formative effect, if any, identical li- ving quarters have on the character of their occupants. The series also concerns the nostalgia for grandparents and their residences, especially in the current era of im- proving health and life spans, where grandparents are much more likely live to old age but due to technological and cultural change are unable to pass on wisdom and practical skills in the direct and pragmatic ways of the past. With today's youth being raised in a mass-produced physical world, the stories of grandparents who lived with no indoor plumbing, no air conditioning, and worked for a dime an hour are undermined by com- fortable condominiums that resemble so much else of the post-visceral suburban landscape. Viewed with my other recently completed photographic work and work-in-progress, Grandma's House illustrates my interest in the relationship between conceptual photography and traditional roving land- scape and architectural photography. Unlike early conceptual work by Sol Le- witt, Bernt & Hella Becher, and more recently Thomas Ruff, this piece argues that an artist should fully acknowledge his own environment as influencing his ideas and decisions. The photographs were made in one day with a Hasselblad SWC, color negatives were drum scanned, and images were printed digitally at 22X22. No auxiliary light- ing was used. Precise placement of the camera in the two different condo units was made possible with Polaroid proofs. Below are images from a July 2008 exhibi- tion of these photographs at Roy G Biv Gallery in Columbus, OH.
