This photo essay, Hiraeth, grew out of my own experience of leaving a home behind and learning how memory stretches across time. Hiraeth is a Welsh word with no direct translation — it speaks to a longing for a home, a place, or a time that can no longer be returned to, yet continues to live within us. It is nostalgia mixed with grief and yearning, but also love.

This work reflects on a past that is gone — inaccessible and irretrievable — yet still present within us, shaping how we experience the present and what we carry into the future. My daughter, only seven, moved through the photographs with an instinctive understanding of the feeling behind the work. Even though she has never lived that past, she carries its echoes naturally, revealing how memory and emotion can move across generations without words.

As a parent raising children far from my own roots, this project became a way to reflect on what remains, what changes, and what continues. Nothing here is about looking back with sadness. It is about acknowledging where we come from, and carrying it forward with care.

These images were created entirely in-camera, emphasizing presence in the moment and allowing emotion to be shaped directly through the lens.