Picture This: Habitat

In our ongoing series, six photographers provide work answering to a single word. Including text and work by Guy Tillim, Pixy Liao, Jack Latham and others, the images act as both question and answer to the concept of Habitat

Habitat is home. It is a word we most commonly associate with wildlife rather than humans, yet is an environment that we share. But habitats, homes, and safe spaces can be found in places outside of the familiar domestic interior. For some, the desired habitat is a far cry from their current home.

In the months since the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, our habitat has been broken down, remade and recontextualised. Social environments such as bars, clubs, libraries and museums have been removed from daily life.

From those isolating in quarantine hotel rooms to those learning to work from home, the spaces we exist in have shifted, in turn, shifting us. Reflections of identity can be found in one’s surroundings, yet sometimes these surroundings create unease and hostility.  Aside from the virus, this habitat is under attack from the ongoing climate crisis. Natural ecosystems disappear at unprecedented rates, animal extinction continues, and both human and wildlife displacement can be seen across the world. Habitats are not only lost, but stolen.

Home may be where the heart is, but the habitat houses the body, venturing between safety to danger, love to hate, sickness to health. The habitat can be external and internal, a refuge or an aggressor. We asked five photographers to share an image that they connected with habitat, with thoughts from Anastasia Samoylova, Pixy Liao, George Selley, Jack Latham and Guy Tillim.