Ghost of belonging

“Ghost of Belonging” explores emotional connection to home after years away through photography, the work reflect on memory, identity, and disconnection to question what home means when it exists between longing, memory, and the reality of change.

Ghost of Belonging is a photographic exploration of memory, identity, and emotional geography, created through my experience as a migrant returning to my homeland of India after years in Australia. The project grapples with the dissonance of homecoming, the strange familiarity of once-known spaces, and the subtle ache of changed relationships, routines, and landscapes.

Through semi-realistic portraits, domestic scenes, and fragments of everyday life, I map a quiet emotional terrain shaped by nostalgia and reconnection. The photographs are paired with an intentional, tactile presentation: unframed, printed in varied sizes, and displayed in a nonlinear rhythm that mirrors the unpredictable flow of memory. This work resists polished representation in favour of emotional honesty and sensory immersion.

Rooted in postcolonial and diasporic theory, Ghost of Belonging draws influence from Homi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, and artists like Dayanita Singh and Wolfgang Tillmans. It speaks to the feeling of being suspended between places of carrying two homes within you, yet not fully inhabiting either. The project asks: What does it mean to return when the home you longed for has become unfamiliar?

This work invites viewers to consider their own relationship with place, memory, and the fragments we carry from our past selves.