I viewed Moussa Sene Absa’s film “Tableau Ferraille” or Scrap Heap, as a junior at Alabama A&M University, an HBCU in northern Alabama. This was a turning point in my life because it explained the complexities of Africana and the people that it enveloped. It reversed all perceived simplicities of the Black story and opened my mind to the all-encompassing story that is Africana. It has always been my goal in photography to agitate the perceived narrative of Black folks.

For three years I taught and mentored a community of Black students at Miles College, in Fairfield, AL. These college students had diverse experiences, differing geographic locations, multifarious socioeconomic statuses and varying household make ups. Despite their contrasting stories, they all had one thing in common coming in my classroom. They all had the goal of getting to know themselves. These students wanted to know who they ,in fact, were, and would become in in the future in regards to the African diaspora. They wanted to not only know their stolen histories marked invisible through the middle passage but they wanted to imagine the future of the Africana world.

My master’s degree from NYU included studies that were heavily concentrated in media and photography and centered around the Black body. It was in graduate school that I discovered my fascination of uncovering the extraordinary in the simplicity of the ordinary life. Addtionally, I was afforded the privilege of post-production interning for Stanley Nelson’s Emmy Award- winning documentary, Freedom Riders with Firelight Media. It was here that I gained invaluable experience in media.

Post graduate school, I entered the Entertainment and Media production program at Lawson State Community College, in Birmingham, AL. It was here that I was able to gain experience in photography. While in the program I shot, edited and produced a short film title Frank and Bowie. This film was featured in the 2015 Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, AL. This experience furthered my interest in documenting people places and things through digital photography. This further inspired me to capture my dying grandmother and her daughters in a short project titled Tennie. I have recently relocated to San Jose, CA, where I explore daily for moments and objects to capture Blackness through still life photography.