This video is from a series made during 3 trips to Detroit, exploring life in a refugee shelter. Residents seeking asylum may live here anywhere from a few months to over a year, waiting for their hearing dates to move their applications forward. Most of the days are spent within the house in a somewhat surreal existence. My intention is to evoke a magnified sense of the everyday within the atmosphere of suspended time in an unfamiliar, temporary home. By quickly personalizing their space people made claim to the present.
I was struck by the care people took for ordinary tasks and the sense of community amongst the residents, often strangers before meeting here. The communal lifestyle seemed to be an antidote to the more hostile, potentially dangerous, environment outside.
One of the conditions under which I was allowed to photograph at Freedom House, was that no faces would be recorded, reflecting the vulnerability of the residents.
The Detroit skyline is in view from the rooms on this side of the building.