Photo Imaging

My work explores the creativity of false beliefs,
illusions that stir the mind.

Having a graphic design background to becoming a photographer
helps me create these illusions or compositions.

I’ve become intrigued by the concept of illusions because the 
visual values it may have and the opportunity to be more creative.

Combining my two skills makes the projects more exciting, 
simply because I have to recreate creative images I’ve already took
to make new art.

As the world becomes more diverse and media is at its all-time high, representation is significant. The African Diaspora (a term commonly used to describe the mass dispersion of peoples from Africa during the Transatlantic Slave Trades) has historically been oppressed by stereotypes. Stereotypes like criminals, Uncle Tom, sapphire, mammy, mandingo, black face, etc., have drastically affected how other people (and even sometimes individuals) view themselves. 

My goal is to capture the African Diaspora in a positive light. Illustrating black people as the total opposite. Black people are highly diverse and unique with special talents and passions. My senior project is a small collection of portraits of black people representing themselves, with small descriptions about themselves, giving a better insight into who they are and their passions. I hope that my work can help break the ignorance of stereotypes and make a step towards change. 

I am a Queer Artist first and foremost. I use my work to explore various topics like identity or the hypocrisy of the gay community. It is not my intention to upset people or to throw shade. I simply strive for people to understand that things aren’t as glamourous as one may think.  

The topics in my work can be hard to digest. I won’t simplify nor make it easy on the viewer. I instead encourage the viewer to take their time with each topic and eventually keep the conversation going beyond the gates of the art world.

While evidence of medicinal practices has been found since the beginning of civilization, we have never seen medication consumed at a global level until recent history. This photographic series explores the extraordinarily high level at which medications are consumed in the ever-growing world we live in. The medications photographed are bought over the counter or prescribed at increasingly alarming rates for issues that could be solved alternatively or are being utilized inappropriately for their side effects.  The commercial advertisement aesthetic speaks to the increasingly large volume and ease at which these medications are obtained. They are advertised via television, radio, and internet websites alongside toys, kitchen appliances, food, and other everyday items. The materials placed within the compositions inform not only what the medications are but provide information about the effects and side effects that ultimately result in the reason for consumption.

So for my project, I wanted to create a piece that would speak on the climate of today’s society with the relationships between people of color and the various police departments all over the state. Personally as a black 22 year old man, I can honestly admit I never feel safe with police around and I’m sure with everything that we have seen since 2020’s protest to even the loss of black men now, the climates not changing anytime soon. Being someone who almost did lose his life before in a “traffic stop.” I almost wasn’t here to convey my story or to even type this statement. I’m not a radical, a threat, or a menace and I damn sure shouldn’t be perceived as that because of what I look like, the clothes I wear or the amount of tattoos I have on my body.

I’M NO STATISTIC.

Humans are no strangers to need. So much of our being is characterized by desire, longing, requiring. We need our bodies to be safe and free from harm; we need food, water, sunlight, and touch. We need other humans to stay alive. What do people do when their basic needs are not satisfied? This photo series explores the idea that isolation creates desire. What people do when they are alone, and how they figure out ways to achieve their needs when it is not readily available. When one is alone and lonely, one will find anything that touches, whether that be the wind or water, or a dream of community to comfort them.

In this series, I constructed images that portray my younger sister’s journey with suicidal thoughts/actions and depression; she was admitted into a psych ward at age 16 after her second suicide attempt. A series of diptychs and single images I have carefully ordered and paired show this journey. The images are to abstractly tell her story, without words, through her facial expressions, body language, and her personal objects/possessions.

I can’t control my mind at times but I can control the environment in my photos. My body becomes an object that expresses a story and emotion that I have full control over. Contrasting between life and death, I start to understand religion in my own way. With my profound interest in fashion I examine my body as an object of purity, an alter ego of myself. I am selling you the sense of purity and softness, yet bringing viewers into a personal space, and creating the feeling like they are not supposed to see what is happening but wanting to look anyways. I am the art director, model, photographer, light designer and costumer.

Fog is a feeling of the unknown and uncertainty as is life and death. Life is one of the most beautiful things to ever exist only because it comes to an end. How will your life come to an end, what will you be thinking about when you take your last breath? Being alone is something that we all are. We must face what comes next on our own. Will we be able to see the loved ones that we cared about so much? Or will it be a place that looks so familiar to us?

This is product photography of fishing gear. I have created a series to showcase these fishing items to showcase them as if the companies were using these images as advertisements. I have taken my skills to capture these products in abstract or life-like environments in the frame. Where I could see them being used are on websites, catalogues, and social media. I wanted to take this series to show how these small simple objects can be framed in such a way to give them importance and make them enjoyable to look at. I am hoping that anyone viewing these images can find these to be pleasing.

I’ve always found myself drawn to two main points of focus, portraiture and landscapes.
After shooting mostly fashion and portraiture over the last few years, I wanted to get back to shooting nature, which initially made me fall in love with photography. When the world went into lockdown last year, I took that as an opportunity to travel. My boyfriend and I drove from Maryland to California and back over the course of a month and a half. Throughout this trip I fell in love with landscapes again. I was able to stop and shoot whatever scene I desired. I realized that the only reason I stopped shooting landscapes was because I was bored with my own surroundings. For this series, I wanted to combine things I have been working on throughout my college career with the outdoor photography that I was lucky to capture this past year.

My subjects are all posing with a slight twist at the waist and arms crossed. I sought to tap into the idea that a person’s posture can reflect deeper emotions and signal internal activities. To heighten the emotional expression, the faces of my subjects are removed to allow people to adjust their perspectives based on a variety of other physical elements that are not usually considered at first glance. Finally, I used a physical representation of the multifaceted and layered human condition, each of the canvases provides its own unique color palette yet also combines with the transparencies to form a holistic image. In my process, I utilized a variety of digital tools and manipulations to create this multi-layered effect. Once the digital rendering was complete, I printed transparencies and overlaid onto the original canvas to create richer, more textured prints.

Whenever I am capturing images, I usually think about a different side of what I am capturing. In certain environments or circumstances, it is common for only one part of it to be focused on more than the rest of it. I focus on those other parts for this series. I searched for those certain areas and I focused on one area that most other photographers would give most of their attention to. I wanted to remind viewers of the other possible views that some photographers leave out in their images. I believe it’s important to remember the entire area of the image and not just one particular section of it.

Through the utilization of magazine clippings, newspaper, and fabric I am recontextualizing found materials to confront how the African American man and woman is represented and perceived in society. In these works, I present individuals juxtaposed with contrasting hair, facial features, body parts, environments and clothing. My collages ascribe to the multifaceted African diaspora by visually depicting cultural appropriation, race, police brutality, stereotypes, identity, and the idealized standards of beauty placed upon women of color. The act of cutting and manipulating allows me to have control to tell our story by expressing the oppressive nature and historical narratives associated with the black community. The representation of individuals of color has been polluted for centuries with discriminatory imagery. I challenge those reactionary views and ideals with my contemporary collages. The black experience is permeated with unparalleled allure, struggle, solidarity, and culture which I explore through my creative practice.