Private Story
Chicago Civil Disobedience
In Chicago Massive Demonstrations were held, after the release of footage of youth shootings by Police. In Laquan Mcdonald's case, there were police cover-ups and an attemt by the mayor, Rahm Emanuel, to delay the footage from being released and first degree murder charges filed, until after his reelection.
When I was young, a friend of mine said that I "Open my eyes too wide." This allusion remains with me and has permeated my work and with these images; my goal has been to explore constructs that bridge the divide between the seen and the unseen. My eyes remain open wide to the untold stories that surround an arrested moment. My focus on disenfranchisement, poverty, exploitation, isolation, and corruption endeavors is to give my subjects clarity amid the chaos and raison d'être to a struggle that much of the world would choose to obscure.
This work exists not to contrast with, but to connect to, the immediate experience. The joy and the sorrow, the humility and the aggrandizement, the contempt, the fear, the exuberance, a full scope of the human condition can be seized at any moment and lost with equal haste. We are too often led to consume broad, benign imageries, while turning away from the stark and unwelcome realities before us.
I hope to accurately portray the attitudes and cultural climate in my city.