The House at Keach Pond

In 2002 I shot some pictures at my grandfather's house. My grandmother died in 1996, and he continued to live in the house until a few days before he died in May 2005. My cousin and her kids live there now.

The house is a ramshackle little lakeside cottage, built in stages by my grandfather, his brothers, his sons and sons-in-law. We spent alot of time there, especially during summers, and even lived there for a summer or two while houses were being built and sold.

I haven't seen the place since Christine moved in, but I know it's different. Even in these pictures, the house that had been so familiar felt different. It was in transition during those 9 years after my grandmother. I feel that here.

My MFA thesis was on the psychology of interior spaces: how interiors are external manifestations of internal mental states. Cluttered homes, for instance, usually begin at some traumatic point in a persons life. Keeping a ton of shit is a way of holding on. I felt an urgency to shoot this house while it was still a little like what I remembered, before my grandfather was gone and it changed completely. So here it is, in part: