#ROOMMATESAFTER40
#ROOMMATESAFTER40
In September 2017, following a marriage, a divorce and ten years of living on my own, I opened my two-story Detroit home to friends. I was just about to turn 42. Feeling unfulfilled by dating apps and disenchanted by the steeply rising cost of living, I was curious about ways to create community.
My primary inspiration were the millennials who live around me in Detroit, many of whom embrace the idea of having roommates.
(In contrast, my single Gen X friends would do anything to afford to live alone.)
Specifically, I thought of a married millennial couple I knew who had brought in roommates for environmental reasons. I'd often be at their house for dinners or parties and I saw how they'd formed a makeshift family of sorts. There was a palpable intimacy, something I've found difficult to achieve in friendship, and certainly in the dating scene as I've gotten older. I really started wondering, would my life feel fuller, more alive, with roommates? Soon, I was living with three other people and two dogs.
This documentary photo essay was published by TOPIC magazine.