Get ready to explore the story of "Disrepair: The Whitney House," a photo essay born out of my Design Foundations II class. This project is about capturing the essence of a place and the feelings that linger long after it's gone.

On the University of Connecticut campus, among the old houses, the "Whitney House" met a sad fate in 2023—it caught fire and could not be saved. By winter 2023-2024, it was gone. My connection with this house goes beyond its history; I always saw something special in it. After the fire, it felt like it lost a piece of itself, and I set out to freeze that feeling in time.

The video I put together combines photos taken on a Canon 90D and refined in Photoshop with a song I covered—"If I go, I'm Goin" by Alan Isakov. The lyrics talk about a burning house, perfectly capturing the mood. I also mixed in the sounds of firetrucks that I heard from my dorm window every night, including the one when the house burned down. To make it more authentic, I included a bit of a news report about the fire, featuring footage of the destruction at its peak. I thought showing the aftermath alongside the sounds of the event would bring out the emotions. 

The convergence of these elements—the stills, the sounds, the lyrics, and the news footage—creates a multi-sensory experience that goes beyond the conventional boundaries of photographic storytelling.