If my photographs have a mission, it would be to combat false narratives and negative stereotypes of black people in America while showcasing their strength and resiliency. Much like Gordon Parks, Roy DeCarava, and Don Hogan Charles, I too am inspired and motivated to show a more honest visual representation of black men and women in this country. Being a black photographer, I feel that it is my responsibility to tell these “Black Stories”. The same stories that non-blacks have been attempting to tell and for the most part, failing at it.
Growing up, most images I've seen of black men and women were wildly exaggerated or even made up. In the media, I saw black men being depicted as aggressive, as thugs, as uneducated, or as “deadbeats” to their children. I saw black women depicted as ghetto, angry, or as single mothers. These images were hard to believe because that was not the black people I knew. That was not my black experience. It was these images that non-black people referred to when they thought of black people. It was this thinking that allowed for these negative stereotypes to be expected by non-black people. It was this type of thinking, that for decades, allowed police officers to murder unarmed black men and women all the while feeling justified to do so.
Since well before the “Civil Rights Act” in 1964, and even before the addition of the “14th Amendment” in 1868, black people were victims of police brutality and civil injustices. The year 2020 was no different. The deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (and unfortunately too many others to name) by the hands of police officers were the sparks needed to ignite the flaming passions of black people. Civil unrest and protests began all over the world in record-breaking numbers amongst a life-changing pandemic. This was and continues to be a monumental moment in history. A fight against 2 (two) viruses, racism, and COVID-19. I needed to do my part in making sure this historical “black story” gets told honestly from the frontlines of these protests before the narrative gets misconstrued and black people are represented as savages and/or thugs again further perpetuating those same stereotypes I am trying to change during the zeitgeist of our time.