Just the Way it Was explores the importance of place and our relationship to images that are not our own. Anonymous participants were handed a stack of found family snapshots and asked to select images that triggered personal memories. Their stories were then recorded. The images were categorized according to six locations commonly depicted in family photographs: living rooms, kitchens, front porches, backyards, streets, and beaches. For each location, the selected images and their associated stories were fragmented and collaged to form a new image, a new story – a collective response.