(Empty) Nesters
The term "empty nest" first emerged in the late 19th century, gaining traction in psychological and sociological discourse by the 1940s. Originally, it evoked a singular image: a mother alone in a quiet house, mourning the departure of her last child. But the reality, then and now, is far more nuanced. While the term was once gendered, today the emotional impact is felt across all parents, regardless of role or identity.
The empty nest is not a fixed state but a mutable one. For some, it arrives with a deep ache, a sense of disorientation or loss. For others, it marks a period of renewal, space reclaimed, silence embraced, autonomy rediscovered. The nest may stay quiet or grow noisy again with boomerang children, aging parents, or new partners. Some preserve their homes like time capsules; others transform them entirely, reimagining their lives within, claiming room for new identities, desires, and rhythms.
This photo series explores that in-between space, homes no longer centered around children yet not entirely free of their presence. Through interviews and intimate portraits, I have documented parents in and around Los Angeles County whose nests are empty, partially empty, or perpetually in flux. For many, this phase is both loss and gain, grief and freedom folded into one. Their stories, tender, complex, and often contradictory, reveal that “empty” is rarely the right word. What emerges instead is a quiet choreography of change, where absence and reinvention often share the same space.
(Empty) Nesters was published as a feature in The Guardian, August 2025 and also received recognition being selected for Critical Mass Finalist, Top 200, 2025.
