Apfelsaft Schorle – Berlin, Frankfurt, Moscow, Champex, Trains – 57 days © Elizabeth Ransom

In her series Homesick, Elizabeth Ransom visualizes the experience of migrant women through her process-based practice. Using a technique called “film soup,” Ransom immerses a canister of film into the participant’s choice of a beloved drink or soup from their home country. The film is submerged for the number of hours, totaling the time this particular person was away from their homeland.  This work was created during the Covid-19 pandemic when a lot of countries had closed their borders, exacerbating the amount of time between visits. Over time, the emulsion deteriorates and changes, resulting in stunning color and abstract artifacts. By combining these intimate perishables with film, Ransom redefines representational portraiture while harnessing photography’s rich history in storytelling.

Participants were asked to write a short piece reflecting on their experience along with these photographic pieces. In their writing, the women share the complex emotions that accompany leaving and arriving. Longing, perseverance, and hope are unifying traits of migration; these stories are full of nuance and authentic experience, allowing space for longing for a home country that may or may not be the same as when they left while celebrating the opportunity to make a home in a new land. Ransom beautifully captures the nuanced experience and dissonance between assimilation and heritage.

You can follow Elizabeth on Instagram at @elizabethransom and find out more info on Women Alt Photo Group here: www.womenaltphotogroup.com

Apfelsaft Schorle – Berlin, Frankfurt, Moscow, Champex, Trains – 57 days (2) © Elizabeth Ransom

Elizabeth Ransom is an artist, researcher, and educator based between the Pacific Northwest and the South of England. She is the founder and director of Women Alternative Photography Group the feminist research project celebrating women, trans, and non-binary artists working with alternative photographic processes. Ransom is also a PhD candidate at the University for the Creative Arts where she is completing a practice-based PhD on the use of alternative photographic processes to visualise the lived experience of transnationality for migrant women. Ransom teaches at Western Washington University in the Art and Art History Department and runs courses and workshops at various art institutions in the US and the UK. As an artist, Ransom takes from her own lived experiences of migration to explore homesickness and transnationality. Ransom’s research builds on theories of migration, place attachment, and declarative episodic memory, particularly from the perspective of the migrant woman. Her work has been exhibited internationally in the UK, India, Mexico, China, and the US.

Chamomile Tea- Bulgaria, UK – 738 days © Elizabeth Ransom

In the series Homesick I invited ten migrant women to share their stories and memories of homesickness. I first collected a list of liquids from each person that reminded them of home. This could be anything from a favourite drink they only have access to in their home country to the soup they ate as a child when they were feeling unwell. I then soaked a roll of 35mm colour film in the liquid for one hour for every day since they had returned to that location this ranged from 57 to 1125 hours.

This work was created in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic when countries had closed their borders and travel was at a standstill. This was the first time for many of the participants that they had not had the option to travel back home to see their families and loved ones. The experience of homesickness was exacerbated for many resulting in physical and emotional symptoms. For some participants, it had been many years since they returned home. The longer that the participant had been away the longer the film was left to soak in the liquid. The emulsion slowly deteriorating over time.

In addition to the photographic work each participant wrote a short piece of text reflecting on their experience of homesikness and transnationality. These texts contain insight into what it feels like to long for a place you cannot access. They explore complex emotions such as guilt that is felt by those who have moved away from family and loved ones. They also showcase the significance of the comfort that cultural food and drink can provide. The confusion of longing for one home while being completely complacent in another. As well as yearning for an imagined future that did not occur, a path that was not taken, opportunities left behind. These letters provide insight into the fear that was felt by many during the pandemic particularly for those that weren’t sure if they would ever step foot in their home countries again, the fear of being forgotten, or not being able to say goodbye, and the fear of losing a piece of themselves.  

Chicken Broth – Mexico, UK – 902 days © Elizabeth Ransom

Film soup is the experimental technique of soaking a roll of film in liquid. The process creates a destructive effect on the film that once developed translates into colourful warped images often containing large swirls, dots, and sometimes completely damaging the emulsion of the film.

Chicken Broth – Mexico, UK – 902 days (2), © Elizabeth Ransom

Mint Tea – Lithuania, UK – 404 days © Elizabeth Ransom

Mint Tea – Lithuania, UK – 404 days (2) © Elizabeth Ransom

Homesick exhibition, James Hockey Gallery, Farnham, UK, 30 November 2024 – 22 January 2025 © Elizabeth Ransom

Homesick exhibition, James Hockey Gallery, Farnham, UK, 30 November 2024 – 22 January 2025 © Elizabeth Ransom

Installation of Letters of Homesickness in the Homesick exhibition, James Hockey Gallery, Farnham, UK, 30 November 2024 – 22 January 2025 © Elizabeth Ransom

Homesick exhibition, James Hockey Gallery, Farnham, UK, 30 November 2024 – 22 January 2025 © Elizabeth Ransom

Handwritten poem by Mimi Fuenzalida on homesickness, 2021 © Elizabeth Ransom