The core images of this ongoing project are of “Spirit Houses”: an element of ancient animistic beliefs found all over Southeast Asia. These shrine-like structures are believed to host the spirits that inhabit the land they are built on. I have photographed them over the course of several trips to Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

These structures are everywhere—on every plot of land, house, and business—since the spirits are believed to protect the space they rest on. However, they can never be destroyed. Instead of moving them when people relocate, they are left to decay in place, untouched in buildings for sale or at construction sites, abandoned to nature.

The photographs are mounted on glass containing active chemicals trapped between the glass and the print. Over time, the colors and shapes of the prints will gradually shift, revealing ever-changing forms throughout the exhibition —until the chemistry dries, and a new image is born from the decay. This prolonged process makes the transformations of the silver more complex, giving the images a paint-like materiality.

Once the chemical reaction begins, it follows an exponentially fast track to degradation. Checking on them daily, tracking their changes and evolution, I have found myself more than once tempted to break my own protocol in an attempt to stop their disappearance.

I find myself drawn to them like a believer to a shrine, speaking about them as if in prayer. Using Spirit Houses as the subject of this series reinforces my own personal questions about spirituality and religion, making me feel that the Image is my true subject of devotion.

Not being in complete control of the degradation and being forced to pay extra attention to these unstable images, I continue my grievance over our general approach to images today—fast, ephemeral, quickly forgotten, and overwhelming.