Susan Carr

Lincoln Relief, Mervin and Jean Jackson Home, Leesburg, Virginia, 2001

Copyright Susan Carr

At the site of The Museum of Contemporary Photography’s permanent collection in Chicago I came across Susan Carr's Personal Spaces series. Her artist statement reads as follows...

Personal Spaces: Details of American Homes

In early 2000 I began photographing the homes of people who have lived in the same place for forty years or more. The impetus for this work was a visit to my Aunt's childhood home in Jackson, Mississippi. Sitting in Mildred's dining room in a home she has lived in for forty-nine years, I realized that this kind of personal space was fast becoming one of our few remaining unique environments. Jackson, like so many other American cities, is plagued with urban sprawl that has deadened the city center and homogenized the surrounding landscape. In a country that prides itself on individualism, it is now possible to buy the same cup of coffee, the same clothes, and the same meal from one coast to the other.

Shortly after my visit to Jackson, I set out to photograph the details of American homes. I have long been fascinated with the way objects and places resonate and reveal the depth of a given moment...more here