Americans often define who you are by what you do – your occupation. At a social gathering, someone asked my wife the what do you do question. My wife responded, “I am a stay at home mom,” but people seemed judgmental and disinterested. A nostalgic and provocative term, "housewife” involuntarily conjures a cultural literacy of a dated icon or even a sentimental view. I set out to understand those who inhabit the role of American Housewife and searched for a way to share this topic through my photography. Subjects are seen in their own environment, in their own clothes and surrounded by their own possessions. I wanted to show the subjects simply being, not doing. Collaborating with each subject, we explored their emotions and experience as a housewife. The viewer is invited to form a narrative by drawing on their own past and consequently forcing an understanding with the subject.
