Idle
M e m o i r e
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Memoire no.1 words and photography by Camilla Engman
I am my own home. Home has been on my agenda lately. I've been kind of lost, floating in space without a home in the way I was used to. I've left the person and the apartment that I called home. This made me "homeless". That was hard but it also gave me a strange feeling of freedom. I could live wherever I chose. I think home is a space not a place – space where no one should enter without your permission. A space where you could feel relatively secure. Maybe it can be an object, but in that case the object makes a space, in your mind, a space where you feel at ease. Home means a lot to me, it always has done, but maybe in a different way now. I am my home. All I really need could fit in a suitcase or two. At the moment I’m working on Memoire no.1, this is my current home. see more of Camilla's work camillaengman.com
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Christopher Mongeau words by Christopher Mongeau
I'll always find home wherever I travel.
I often think of home as so many different things at once. Sometimes home is my quiet bedroom in the little New England city I live in. Sometimes it’s my favourite coffee shop, beach or trail in the woods. Home can be the Saturday mornings when I get to sleep in and get breakfast with my girlfriend at my favourite cafe. I’ve felt at home in places thousands of miles away from where I live. As primarily a documentary photographer, I sometimes feel like I’ve had hundreds of different homes throughout my life. Every road trip, every airport I’ve woken up at, and every van I’ve slept on the floor in has been filled with dozens of moments — moments that I’ve captured through a lens and will never forget. I think of all of these as home in one way or another, because they are the times in my life during which I felt like I was where I’m meant to be. Travel simplifies your idea of home, and once you let go of the traditional idea of home (the place you grew up, your parent’s house), you allow yourself to connect with new places in really cool ways. I don’t think anyone
can ever cling to that one, singular idea of “Home” too far into their lives, and if they do, they shouldn’t. The world is big and life’s too short to stay in one place for long. My idea of home constantly evolves over the years. I’ve lived in four apartments in the last three years, and each time I move, it gets easier and easier to leave the old behind. I think what I’ve always loved most about being on the road and calling that my home is that it isn’t going anywhere. You won’t suddenly get evicted or find that your lease is up on the road. Things might get tough out there, but if you’re with the right people, someone will always have your back. And if you’re alone, you realize how good it feels to exist for a while without relying on anyone else for anything. I guess to keep it simple, I feel at home during the moments in which I am on the road, doing what I love with the people I love. see more of Christopher's work at flickr.com/photos/untitledfragment
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F r e m a n t l e ,
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Fremantle, born and raised interview by Chloe Ray and photography by Olive Cooke We noticed on your blog you post a lot about lifestyle but also travelling. What one object do you take with you to make yourself feel more at home? When traveling the one thing I keep with me would be my Rose Quartz necklace that my best mate found me on his travels through Mongolia, Nepal and India.
We had a little encounter with Olive. An Australian babe that caught our eye on Instagram. We admired her vitality through her pictures and her ability to embrace friends, food and travel whole heartedly. We just had to have a chat with her to find out a bit more.
Where is home for you? Home to me is anywhere I can feel comfortable surrounded by the people and animals I love. I think of "home" as more of an activity than a place, whether that is drinking copious amounts of Gin and Tonic with my Grandparents in England, swimming in beautiful waters around the world or simply sitting on the back porch of my family home in Perth Western Australia.
Nepal, Mongolia and India? They all sound amazing. Where’s the best place you’ve travelled to this year? I actually just got back from a short trip to Bali & Lembongan, which was possibly, a few of, the best weeks of my life. I’m going to put that down to not only being in paradise, venturing to incredible waterfalls and swimming with millions of fish through amazing clear water but spending time with the most beautiful group of friends I could imagine. I was laughing for 10 days straight.
So you’re from Perth? How long have you lived there for? Sure am. Born and raised in Fremantle!
So when you’re not jet setting off somewhere, what do you usually enjoy doing? When I am not off exploring the world, you
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will usually find me painting or drawing or cutting something up — making a mess at home — while lying in the sun or I love to go adventuring close to home. Whether that is finding waterfalls in the Perth hills or finding snorkel spots along the coast. Where is the best place to visit in Perth and, closer to home, in Freemantle? If you are ever going to visit Fremantle, I’m going to say get a Halloumi breakfast from Cool Room. It’s a little cafe in East Fremantle and then afterwards you should catch a ferry to Rottnest Island — which is about 45 minutes on a boat. There are no cars on the Island so it’s all about bike riding around to the most amazing beaches, where you have to go snorkeling! It’s actually amazing! If you could only have one meal for the rest of your life, what and where would it be? If I could have one meal for the rest of my life, (disregarding nutritional value of course) it would have to be the insane deep fried fish dish I got in Cinque Terre while I
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was away in Italy. I’m not even sure what the hell it was called but it is the one thing I still have food dreams about and that was more than 2 years ago.
myself, is that, you must experience the bad to appreciate and enjoy the good. Pretty simple and not a great one liner. But balance is very important so it really makes sense to make the most of everything and to ultimately just be as happy as possible and just enjoy it, your life that is…
Do you have a motto or belief that you like to live by? Now this is where I wish I were into those inspirational quotes about life that seem to be all over Pinterest! I could say something like “YOLO” or quote Marilyn Monroe or even Google "quotes about life" but to be completely honest – not saying I have figured out the meaning of life – but I have this idea that everybody just wants to feel good. So therefore, do what makes you happy.
for more from Olive, visit her website olivecooke.com and her Instagram instagram.com/olivecooke
What piece of advice would you give our readers, to live a vibrant life? What’s my advice for a vibrant life? I guess the one thing I continuously telling
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N i c o l a
O d e m a n n
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Nicola Odemann words and photographs by Nicola Odemann
The world stops and I find a piece of myself. It is strange to think that a place I visit once a year only, can feel so much like home. It’s strange to think how familiar everything seems and how the mountains there seem to have waited for me to get back there all year long. As if the world stops each time I leave and continues to turn around once I'm back. And each time I am back there I become, again, the child I've always been. Having spent each summer there since I was little, this place is full of memories and everything is, indeed, familiar. I know the mountains and the sounds of the rivers. I know the darkness and the clearance of the sky in the deepest night. I know the pattern of the stars. I know the sounds of thunder and how they resound in the dark. I know the feel of the forest floor and of wildflowers beneath my feet. I know the sound of crickets and how the leaves of the trees swing in the wind. I know the faces of the people and the way they speak. I know the looks in their eyes. I know the roads and every curve and all of the houses along the way. I know the cows, the cats, the chickens. I know where the best berries grow and the secret spots where no day hikers will show up. I know the mountain trails to the summit without even looking. I know the speed of the fog. I know how it feels. How I feel there. I know this place as if it was my home, as if I grew up there. And I guess somehow I did. A part of me stays there and I reunite with this part of myself each time I'm back. So although it may not be my real home, it's my home away from home. see more of Nicola's work at flickr.com/photos/carelessedition
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Anton Novikov words and photography by Anton Novikov
I can find it in an object, A home can be found in an object and in a person. Unfortunately not everyone meets the person who will become his or hers home and support for life. So sometimes you just have to be happy with an object. I try to make my home comfortable with guitars and old paintings and boxes but sometimes –even being surrounded by all this – I get bored. My remedy is just to focus on my favourite work or a long hike through woods and mountains. I can’t imagine, at the moment, my life without it. see more of Anton's work at flickr.com/photos/endlesstrains
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