Iris Humm (b. 1988) is a French/Swiss photographer currently based in Barcelona. Yet, every summer, she’s spent a big part of her time in the house she invited us to see: ‘a wooden chalet at the end of a small Swiss village, surrounded by mountains and facing one of the bluest lakes.’
Her distinct photographic language captures an intimate, particular view on moments that could otherwise be forgotten or blurred by the filters of memory. These images and words reflect the resilience of summertime moments, the comfort of permanence and the joy of family and togetherness.
‘I’ve been spending most holidays here since I was born. I think what I am looking for is being in nature, close to the lake, observing the quality of light. I love seeing the house come alive in the spring and quietly go back to sleep in the fall. I know everything by heart: how the sun moves, when the apple tree flowers, how cold the lake is and what kind of green the leaves are in May.’
‘Coming here is important because it feels like home, like family, and the house hasn’t changed since I was a child. Everything still looks like it did 30 years ago, it’s familiar, intimate. When I am here with my sister and father, I feel like we all grow, we evolve, we get to know each other in new ways. I don’t see them often because we all live in different countries, so our time together is rare.’
‘The house and my family have been the subject of my personal work for the past few years, so when I am there, in a certain way, I am creating work. Every time is different from the previous one, and I always try to approach it in a new, fresh way, and I think it really shows in the imagery I make. It’s always very interesting and inspiring to be at the house, sometimes even a little tiring because while I go there to disconnect, I am constantly watching, observing, photographing. But I always really enjoy it, I feel like my photography work will tell me all I need to know about my family and myself, I couldn’t think of any other way of doing it.’
‘Life here in the summer is easy. We swim, go out on the row boat, read in the sun, bike rides around the village, take long walks along the lake and just look at the water. And we cook, a lot. It can get really hot in the day, but the water in the lake is always cold. And at night, the air is fresh, and we can go to sleep with our windows open and listen to the faint sound of the lake.’
