weBelong

I see portraiture as a therapeutic tool for self-reflection and an agent of social change, inviting us to look beyond the surface, challenging us to sit in discomfort, and teaching us to appreciate the complex and difficult beauty inherent in our shared humanity.

My work focuses on community-centered art photography projects that create social impact. My intention is to connect the experiences of marginalized individuals, who exist at the intersection of gender and race, to systems of oppressions in order to foster empathy and understanding by both the subjects and audience. Through portraits and first-person narrative, the subject is given a space to feel worthy of being seen. By enabling the audience to immerse themselves in another’s story, along with prompts to facilitate self-reflection, the audience is invited to bear witness and to recognize the shared threads of our humanity. For both subject and audience, my hope is that this work can bring to light our unconscious beliefs about who matters and is worthy of being seen, thereby challenging harmful narratives that prevent us from seeing ourselves and each other as whole human beings.