Through the Eye of My Lens

I tell my friends all the time - every time - regardless of whether my camera is on me or not, I feel like my lens is an extension of me and my vision, how I see the world, and how I see people.

When I started out, I was obsessed with nature. I don't know what was in the air, but for a while it was like, ‘Oh, this is a pretty tree right here. Let me take a picture.’ I went from photographing trees and landscapes to focusing on people: how people react/view the lens on the outside, how I'm viewing them through my lens, and how I wanted to depict them. Now, I love taking portraits – they're my favorite.

Regarding my lens and storytelling, I always want to depict Black people and Black stories in their most authentic light. In addition, I just love emphasizing Black joy. Today especially, everybody's like, ‘Oh, yeah, let's talk about Black joy,’ and it's always Black joy, this Black joy that, but the content that we're consuming and the art that's being made isn't reflective of actual Black joy. It's reflective of our pain and suffering, and although that is very important and relevant, I feel like there’s too much of an emphasis on that aspect of Black experiences in the media we're consuming.

I just wanna change that, and I feel like my camera represents that part of me. It's what I'm trying to do, and it’s my own vision of the type of art I want to create and the type of stories that I want to tell.