"These little houses are the closest some will get to owning a home"

Thursday 16 March 2023

A 28-year-old photographer has attempted to capture the spirit of Jersey's housing crisis through a new still-life series.

Connor Daly has spent the last few weeks photographing tiny model houses, only 2 or 3 cm tall.

Connor was born in Jersey and took up photography after being inspired by his grandfather, a photographer of 30 years.

He studied photography at Arts University Bournemouth, graduating in 2017, and has spent the time since building up a career as a photographer.

Connor's work varies widely and tends to focus on trying to frame commonplace objects in a unique light in order to expose a meaning behind them.

His first still life project, which took him five years to complete, kicked off with a photo of a carpark in Brighton.

Pictured: Two of Connor's photo's from his 'Spatial Visions' series. 

He's since gone on to tackle staircases, empty theatres, forests, roads and even envelopes.

More recently, he became inspired to tackle Jersey's housing crisis after browsing through Jersey Buy and Sell, a local Facebook marketplace.

"I was just trawling through and I saw these little houses up for sale. They're made by a local artist, Lauren Fulvia. Normally they're part of these little scenes but I asked if she could remove them entirely," he explained.

"Originally, the series was supposed to be more abstract, about the notion of a home, but we started talking about the issues in Jersey, we were just having a coffee and having a chat, but it got me thinking more and more that, for a lot of people, these little houses are the closest some people will get to ever owning a home in Jersey."

Pictured: One of the photos from Connor's housing crisis series.

The series consists of around 10 still life photos of Lauren Fulvia's little houses.

Through the use of muted and saturated colour tones, Connor hopes the series will convey the feeling of an imminently looming crisis.

He said: "It represents a looming presence, and something that is becoming further and further out of reach." 

The photographs from Connor's still-life series on the housing crisis are available to view on his website HERE.