It's an interesting process to explore the things left behind by another and to ask yourself what you'll remember of those close to you. What will be left? Will a story be told?

My work has always seemed to focus on interactions between life, humanity, and place; the aging of the landscape, the home, the person.

This exhibit focuses on the story told by the items left behind when a life has left a home. It captures the energy felt when standing in an abandoned space and explores the mystery behind what links location, memory, and emotion.

Here, you will find bits and pieces of my story.

When my great-grandmother died, all I could think about was being in her house for Thanksgiving and Christmas almost every year of my life. I couldn't imagine not seeing it all again. On the day of her funeral, I went to the house and photographed every room. It was, in a sense, almost like taking her portrait. I began to notice the deep emotion each image aroused and decided it was something strong enough to focus on for an exhibit.

For The Vacant Light, I've photographed three different homes:

- The home of my great aunt who now lives with her son after a bad fall.

- The home of my great grandmother, who lived alone until at 93, she fell, went into the hospital, and never returned.

- The home of a woman in my home town whose family moved several states away, returned for her funeral, and left her things in place for over ten years

Each home tells a different story and each image shows the strength of the life which seemed to bind these objects together, with no intention of leaving.

© Saybra Phillips- All images