Before going to Parsons, I made a lot of self-portraiture work. In many ways it was very unguided self-portraiture work – just photographs of me in a landscape. After my first semester at Parsons, I returned home to Mississippi and continued to make work about myself, and about my family’s story. Instead of focusing the lens on my body and me, I turned it to my perspective. In Regards to Family is about what my life means, my heritage, my family’s story, and my placement within that story. While making this work, I’d finally reached a point of satisfaction. I was then able to make work about something that was not about my heritage or my direct family.
