Staying In

Staying In is a meditation on home, grief, and belonging. It is an intimate photographic inquiry shaped by my movement between Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa. Through a series of black-and-white images, I explore the cyclical nature of grief and healing, and the ways memory becomes embedded in landscapes, relationships, and silence.

When I lost my mother in 2017, my sense of home changed completely. I withdrew emotionally and physically, struggling to find ground. Years later, I returned to Zambia and began photographing as a way to reconnect with my father, my past, and myself. In 2021, I noticed my father tending to a new garden. That quiet act of care deeply moved me. It showed me that grief could root itself in something living, and that nurturing a space could also become a way of nurturing loss. That moment became the foundation of this series. Trees, walls, empty spaces, and fragmented domestic scenes became symbols through which I could process.

Spanning three years, this work traces my journey from emotional distance to intentional engagement. In choosing connection over avoidance, the project offers me a path to constructing home. Through an allegorical rendering, I explore spaces marked by both presence and absence, where connection and loss coexist.

Kabunda was chosen by our Community Manager and Program Curator to participate in one of our Face-to-Face portfolio feedback sessions with our Guest Room Curator Jo. Trujillo Argüelles.

"The session was a valuable chance to share two long-term projects. Jo offered thoughtful, affirming feedback that clarified the sequence of my work. Her perspective surfaced new questions and gave me the clarity to move forward with a steadier rhythm as I near the project’s final stages."

- Kabunda's testimonial on his “Face-to-Face” Session