Artist Statement
What makes a community? Is it regional lines drawn on a map around several city blocks? Or is it the people? The ones who come together when one of their own is struggling? The ones who speak up for others when their voices are being stifled? The ones who stand side-by-side when they see a wrong that must be righted, no matter the adversity?
America is in turmoil. Its citizens are at odds. Racial tensions are flaring. The coronavirus is disproportionately ravaging marginalized communities. As 2020 wears on, the tension increases. This photo series was shot during the period of civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd, the shooting of Jacob Blake and the Louisville Grand Jury indictment of the officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor. The people in these photographs are members of a community, whether it is the neighborhood in which they live, the allies they seek to align themselves with, or the movements in which they choose to be a part of.
These communities exist because of shared experience and shared pain, as well as a shared purpose to bring back exactly what it is to be community. To help one another, to heal one another and to move forward together for a better tomorrow as allies and not adversaries. United we stand, divided we fall.
