Natalie Stephens

Coming Home

Coming Home is a photographic series combining film and digital photography to explore the transition to adulthood and the conflict it raises between leaving or staying in one's hometown. The composite scenes of the artist's hometown of Northville, Michigan, visualize the tension of a colliding past and possible future. Says Stephens, "I have found that since I began college four years ago I felt a push and pull between wanting to remain connected to my hometown of Northville, Michigan, and not finding myself stuck there and stuck in the past as I have observed many people do." Through these images, we come to understand the experiences of growing up and learning how to navigate what it means to leave home and the nuances of coming back home.