In 2012, Walton-Healey began photographing a seemingly vacant block of old-factory-type buildings in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Preston. Searching for a documentary subject for an impending university assignment, he unwittingly discovered a community of artist-activists squatting inside the buildings with a Pit Bull dog. Being accomplished artists themselves, the founding occupants invited the photographer to begin a body of documentation on their lifestyle …

Eight years after the squat was disbanded, a chance encounter led Walton-Healey to re-connect with these individuals, and community. Inspired by their enduring creativity, he produced and released an art-photography book with their blessings. Conceived initially for the purpose of soliciting retrospective, verbal narratives from participants (as per video below), the publication House of Ghosts (2020) received a nomination for The Best Antipodean Photobooks of 2020, commended for its ability to show an alternative conception of ‘home,’ and how isolation can become community…