The Photographic Journal

Quest for PrincessDom

Essay 68 • Sep 30th 2016

I have always been obsessed by a crumbling facade. Marveled at a broken down staircase. Married to peeling wallpaper. I have been taking photos in abandoned places since I was 21. I used to go on ghost town trips all over Oregon just to make more and more and more of my fix: naked photos of my friends. Ten years later it looks like I am still that same 21 year old woman at heart.

Quest for PrincessDom is a series of images taken in and around one of the most colorful abandoned place I’ve seen. Prior to seeing the location, I had purchased a cheap, bright-green plastic tiara at the American Visionary Art Museum's gift shop in Baltimore—for Tiffany. She seemed like a princess to me. When we came to the site, Tiffany was donning a sweater that perfectly matched the shutters and dingy turf-colored carpet, as well as the tiara.

Viewing these photos and recalling the experiences I had shooting them, I imagine the home-structure as a playground-- a chess board or a Candyland spread. Myself and Tiffany are the players, the ones questing for something beautiful and royal.

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Lauryn Hare (b. 1985 in Knoxville, TN) is a portrait photographer whose work began in 2006 in the darkroom. She focused immediately on portraits of women and herself. Since then, Lauryn has designed a degree at Marylhurst University in Portland, Oregon called ‘Imagery-Sustained Healing’, which explores the therapeutic benefits of self-portrait photography. She has recently completed a year of travel on the road where she has developed a larger portfolio of work. Lauryn is from Portland, Oregon.

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Model: Tiffany Helms
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