For six months after her grandfather’s death, photographer Diana Carbone isolated herself from loved ones. The season of reflection and art making birthed a stunning photo book and exhibition.
In Carbone’s “This Must Be the Place,” a solo show on view at the Lunder Art Center, the Lesley University graduate conjures a time capsule of grief and life after loss. She’s got a keen eye for light and can craft visual stories from the most everyday subjects.
The works have a muted palette with an occasional and judicious pop of color. In the portrait “Supervising Yard Work in Plymouth,” an elderly woman peers at a spot off-canvas. Installed to the left, a vertical photo shows a patch of vines in the deepest of greens. On another wall, a woman shields her face from a sun beam, squinting. She’s framed by a shot of melting ice on her left and a sun-dappled box of red raspberries on the right. Carbone manages to immerse you in the sensory delights, the banality and the pain of her grief-stricken routines all at once.
The show’s centerpiece is the “Papa Jim Collection,” a vitrine display case of family photos. It’s deeply personal, but still manages to invite you in. Viewers are easily able to see themselves in ephemera ranging from wedding photos to vacation snapshots.
Near the gallery’s exit, copies of the accompanying book show the simple yet skillful ways Carbone combined family memories with her recent photography. Those lush raspberries are pasted on top of an image of her grandfather smirking, but one of his eyes is covered. An image from 2024, “Our Bathroom at 4pm,” is atop an old wedding photo, hauntingly covering the groom’s face.
Every image is understated, but they add up to something incredible. You leave the exhibit feeling a deep sense of nostalgia that, like grief, can never be described. “This Must Be the Place” captures all the bittersweet commonplaceness of death, pain and the will to go on living.
The gallery is open to the public on weekends and by appointment during the week.
“This Must Be the Place” is on view through Aug. 3 at Lesley University’s Lunder Arts Center, 1801 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square, Cambridge.
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