In the Solastalgia series, Courtney Desiree Morris explores the complexities of place, memory, ecology, and the search for home. Solastalgia is a “mourning diary” for the town of Mossville, Louisiana, and it is named after the term that environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht coined to describe the deep existential and psychic grief that accompanies that loss of one’s home environment due to forces beyond one’s control. This photographic series examines the effects of environmental racism through the artist’s family history. Taking portraits of herself and a multigenerational group of family members in places significant to sustaining Black life in Mossville, Morris creates images to mourn the loss of place caused by the petroleum industry in Southwest Louisiana.

Scroll through Morris’s Solastagia series or experience the works in person at YBCA in the windows facing the Gardens.