Corbett Berger

I found these pictures on Zillow. I projected them onto a wall and photographed them with a 4x5 view camera. They are the homes I thought I would never see again. Places tied to old friends I’ve fallen out of contact with and no longer speak to. I didn’t have the conceptual foresight to photograph them then, and smartphones weren’t quite as ubiquitous yet. Thankfully, because of realtors and technology, almost any house your friend’s parents sold has pictures of it online, and you, too, can revisit some of your most treasured memories. The housing crisis informs the pictures. Real estate investment firms continue to buy single-family homes, making it harder for young people to become homeowners. Homeownership was one of the few clear pathways to upward mobility. This work speaks to photography’s ability to recall a memory or place unlike any other medium. It’s like when you randomly smell the scent of somebody’s house, which always smells different from your own, and you are instantly transported back.