11/07/2025
“Roots & Remnants” is an ongoing photo series that transforms both Caribbean & Southern botanicals into sculptural still-lifes—bridging memory, identity, & place. Drawing from my Jamaican heritage, French-Canadian background, & upbringing in Georgia, I use produce & foliage from both my childhood & present-day life to reflect a layered cultural narrative.
Cutting into these organic materials becomes a metaphorical act, while composing & balancing each form becomes a meditative process. The sharp dissection of their components—set against the interplay of soft & hard shadows—mirrors the emotional distance I feel from my heritage. The longer I’m away from Jamaica, the more it feels as though pieces of that legacy are being carved away, softening with time.
Each set is presented as a triptych to echo the ancestral offering table, a sacred arrangement which was often prepared during birthdays, death anniversaries, & the New Year to honor those who came before us. In this structure, the three images form a quiet altar, uniting memory, ritual, & continuation across generations.
Through expressive compositions, texture, & color, this series becomes a visual, cultural archive, safeguarding the beauty of my ancestry while honoring my present. This series allows me to hold onto where I come from, even as time & place continue to stretch & reshape those boundaries. As I find myself repeating these ritualistic motions of building & rearranging tablescapes & flat lays that echo Jamaican ancestral offerings, I realize this work has become an offering of my own.— Calah Levy Burns
