A PLACE CALLED HOME

This body of work is a documentary exploration of the landscapes that have shaped both my childhood and adult life. Initially conceived as a personal intervention into feelings of disconnection, the project has evolved into an autoethnographic inquiry into deindustrialisation and precarity.

Across these environments, a spectre lingers, a haunting presence of the past embedded in the land and its people. The deindustrialisation of the North in the latter half of the 20th century left deep scars, dismantling the social and economic fabric of working-class communities and casting subsequent generations into a state of uncertainty and instability.

The project draws on the concept of social haunting, as articulated by Professor Avery Gordon, of the University of Californi, and Dr. Geoff Bright, of Manchester Metropolitan University, to frame these landscapes as sites where unresolved histories continue to echo. Through a semi-autobiographical lens, I merge these two geographies, neither of which fully feels like home, into a fictionalised terrain. This constructed space allows me to navigate the tension between past and present, familiarity and estrangement, and to search for a sense of belonging.

Yet, within this imagined landscape, a more universal narrative emerges—one that resonates with the lived realities of post-industrial communities across the UK. It is a story of loss, resilience, and the enduring impact of systemic change on individual and collective identity.