Whereas the lodging range enormously from sofa to sofa, one factor is all the time sure: there usually isn’t a photograph of the place you’ll be sleeping. As a substitute, the descriptions written by hosts normally give a way of what to anticipate—whether or not it’s a non-public room, a sofa, or generally even sharing a mattress with the host. This lack of certainty makes every sofa keep really feel like its personal distinctive expertise, formed by the host and the house they provide.
Every photograph within the collection showcases a unique host—somebody from a far-off nation with a singular story, job, and way of life. The vary is placing: a free-spirited girl in Mexico who works at Reserving.com and events each evening, a authorities speechwriter from Canada, and a nudist in Brooklyn. Natcha’s lens captures not simply the hosts however the delicate dynamics that play out when residing underneath another person’s roof—generally cozy, generally awkward, however all the time deeply private.
The mission started throughout Natcha’s time in artwork faculty in New York, the place she turned to Couchsurfing as a method to ease the loneliness of beginning recent in a brand new metropolis. For her, it was greater than only a method to discover a mattress for the evening—it was a chance to attach, study, and develop. The collection is a portrait of those connections—some fleeting, others enduring—and a mirrored image on how, in the long run, we’re all simply vacationers on the lookout for a spot to name house.