Home is What You Make of It

When I was younger and visited people in their homes (friends of my parents, for example), I used to love to try their perfumes, the soaps, the body lotions, I liked to taste their food, to browse their books and magazines etc. I was simply curious and somehow the grass looks always greener on the other side, right? 🙂

Twenty years later, I must say I haven`t changed much in this respect. The only difference is that now I also take photos of what I`m seeing in these houses. And I love to do this more than anything else! I just feel that, by taking photos of their homes, I`m actually capturing something about the people who are inhabiting them, a part which is not always visible when you meet these people for drinks in the city, for example.

Last week, while still in Bucharest, I had the pleasure of spending an evening at Laura`s place. If you are wondering why she still had a Christmas tree in her house at the end of January, that`s because she wanted me to see it, knowing that I did not have one this year. On a closer look, you will see some dry fruit slices in the tree – that`s because Laura is the type of person who actually thinks of and makes time for such things as to cut lemons into slices, put them on the heater and beautifully transform them into nice decorations for the Christmas tree!

This house is the kind of house which is full of people even when there are no people around – that`s because Laura is the kind of person who displays into her own living space all the nice objects (painting, vases, photos etc) her friends gave her (with or without any specific occasion) throughout the years. I could see, for example, a (very ugly) painting I made for her seven years ago. She was also very fond of something she had recently received as a gift from the mother of her other half: a set of white porcelain cups, more than 25 years old, that the person in discussion had received for her wedding. We had the pleasure of drinking some nice ginger tea – made by Laura, of course – in those cups.

I am pretty sure there is a story, more or less, about each object that you will see in the photos below. Enjoy and, as Romanians say when they receive their guests, feel yourself like home!