Lorena Turner: A Habit of Self Deceit | LENSCRATCH

Our childhood shapes who we are and those influences profoundly impact our psyches, leaving us with the choice to repeat, accept, or reject things learned and experienced in our early years. Photographer Lorena Turner has a new monograph, A Habit of Self Deceit, that examines her escape from and return to the people and places of her past, the family that left her feeling unsafe and uncared for. The book itself feels a bit like a bible–a size that is easy to hold, with deep red end pages featuring narrative work with layers of darkness and humor that consider decay and loss. There is a beauty to this collection of images, celebrating the banal and discarded, yet showing us the marks of human existence that state unequivocally, “someone was here”. Perhaps this proof of looking is the ultimate story telling of who we are.