The House by the Railroad Tracks is an ongoing photographic exploration of grief, inheritance, and Black Southern identity through the domestic space of my grandfather's home in Stockbridge, Georgia. Created during my transition into adulthood, the project began as a way of preserving the stories we shared. It has since become an investigation into what a house carries after loss and how photographs can make invisible histories tangible.
I approach the home as an archive. Its rooms, objects, and rhythms hold the imprint of generations, revealing that identity is shaped not only through people but through the spaces that witness their lives. Working primarily with analog photography, I move between portraiture, still life, and interior landscapes to examine how memory becomes embedded within everyday life. The work is grounded in careful observation, allowing ordinary moments to carry emotional weight.
Throughout the project, absence is understood as another form of presence. Grief is not represented as a singular event but as something that lingers within the home, quietly shaping the way it is seen and experienced. Rather than documenting what has been lost, I am interested in what remains: the gestures, objects, and spaces that continue to speak after people are gone.
The color red appears throughout the work as a recurring visual language. It connects bloodline, love, sacrifice, and the histories embedded within the Southern landscape. More than a symbolic device, it becomes a thread that binds family memory to place, suggesting that the past remains woven into the spaces we continue to inhabit.
Ultimately, The House by the Railroad Tracks asks how photographs can hold what remains after loss. In doing so, the work reflects on the ways domestic space carries history and shapes our understanding of home.
