This first photo was taken back in the summer of 2014. It remains a firm favourite of mine — a scene I’m fond of for so many reasons, and the memory of pressing the shutter is still so fresh it almost feels like it was taken yesterday.
The next time I walked past is similarly clear in my mind, as I was shocked to find the house abandoned and empty. A home once so full of life was suddenly utterly bereft of it — even the colours weren’t there anymore. A structure so instantly recognisable, and yet at the same time so completely different.
Over time the only real sign of life was a plant that made it through the wall and into the kitchen. A poignant, and in many ways apt reminder of the resilience that once defined the house and its elderly owner.
And now, almost exactly 7 years to the day since that first photo, the cycle is in some ways complete. The building is gone, but the colour has returned, and if one blinks or squints a little, there’s also a fleeting reminder of the old lady who once lived her life there.