IG: @dellharris_photography
dellharrisphotography.com

Belongings once mine, that are lost in time - become trace marks on a path toward the structure of mind

My sudden entrance into adulthood, left me learning many life lessons for the first time at a young age. As an adult looking back on my early childhood, I’ve found gaping holes in the structure of my mind. Through Belongings once mine, that are lost in time - become trace marks on a path toward the structure of mind, I can explore the possibility of reclaiming lost memories and piecing together what my reality once was. My work is more than photographs of the ruination that can occur over time. It invites viewers to accompany me on a journey through time and exploration.

I wouldn’t say my parent’s divorce, the loss of our home, and raising my little sister were traumatic. Rather, I would say it was the biggest lesson I could have experienced at that point in my life. Though my series is extremely personal for myself and my family it connects a broader group of people through family resilience and the pursuit of safety and structure in life. My series includes the use of photographs I found in my childhood home. They are enlarged to show their age and serve as a connection between my broken, tattered home, and my family. I am twelve years removed from a home I once considered safe, loving, and structured. Now all I see is destruction, conflict, and confusion.

Bio

Originally from a small town in New Hampshire, Harris and her family moved to Maine at a young age. There she grew up in a small close-knit community located in Eastport where she spent most of her teenage years. As a young girl, Harris often found herself exploring fantasy lands created by Cornelia Funke where Dragons were ridden by humans, and books turned to reality with a whisper of the tongue.

In 2018, Harris reconnected with Photography after an upsetting experience. Now, Harris can be found exploring the woods with her camera as she often did with her father as a young girl, drinking coffee over a good book, and writing. Harris is interested in the relationship between the resilience in her own family behind closed doors and the decay of her childhood home she visited years later. Harris’s work discusses memory loss, the betrayal of the mind over time, and her complex relationship with her family as well as herself. Her work is more than photographs of the ruination that can occur, but invites viewers to accompany her on a journey through time.