96 - A Photo Memoir

96 Joralemon Street – A Photo Memoir

8 ½ x 8 ½ printed book

Images and copy are on 90 pages, 45 spreads

Over the last several years I have been working on a photo memoir of the house where I grew up. It is where I learned about home, comfort, love, connection, heartbreak, conflict, peace, art. It is where I got married, and continued to return to into my 40’s. And when my mother became too sick to continue living there, it was forty-five years of our family’s life that we packed up, divided up, and sold.

But since packing up, I’ve found that home never goes away. It continues to stay inside me no matter where I live, or old how I am. I will always remember the uneven treads of the staircases, the light in each individual room, the morning sounds in the summer, nighttime shadows on the ceiling from cars driving down our street, the exact tug needed to open the pantry door, and how it all still feels a part of me.

As we were emptying out and packing up the house, I took photos without a clear idea of how I would use them. And then, some years later, and with a trove of multi layered and saved memories, I started a memoir built out of photos, artifacts, visual memories, and writing.

These pages are a portion of the book.

© Julia Kuskin - Introduction/Doorbell
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Introduction/Doorbell

© Julia Kuskin - Nick's room
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Nick's room

© Julia Kuskin - 96 on the transom
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96 on the transom

© Julia Kuskin - The four of us
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The four of us

© Julia Kuskin - Living room
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Living room

© Julia Kuskin - The stairwells
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The stairwells

© Julia Kuskin - Living room fireplace
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Living room fireplace

© Julia Kuskin - Snowy exteriors
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Snowy exteriors

© Julia Kuskin - Porch door shadows/The Dorian Wind Quintet
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Porch door shadows/The Dorian Wind Quintet

© Julia Kuskin - Details
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Details