Shams is the first woman Marie Le Gall photographed for her project Homebody, exploring the feeling of home in women’s bodies. After reading Marie’s thoughts and observing her images, we started to think for the first time that actually our own bodies are our very first homes. And we pictured it as the place where the soul is nestled in cozily.
“Last September, after going through a breakup that shook my conception of home and what it meant for me, I started an intimate photography and poetry project exploring the feeling of being home and what it meant for women. Shams is the first woman I met for this project. She was also going through a breakup and was just in the process of moving to her dad’s apartment in Paris. We both felt uprooted for different reasons. She did not have lots of belonging, just this white sheet we used to shoot. Home for her is warmth, lots of people, the ability to be alone and lonely without being scared, living how she wants, the comfort of being free. Following our session, I wrote this poem:
moving around
i always knew how long to stay
and when to go
home is a heartache for a woman with my past
a thing i hold close to the chest
as something to protect
when you left
it shook my home
to burn burdensome roots
my spine cracked open
muscles torn into threads
i looked at you and knew
never worked harder
to be with anyone
than i did with you
and it took me a while to understand
the beauty of letting go
i had to find under my skin
roots and trunks
new sounds of all kinds
to learn how to be home on my own
Text and images bv Marie Le Gall / @marielegall
