Conceptual nominee

“Buffalo Soldier” is a staged photography series that explores the dark history of the African-American soldier. The images tell the stories of brave warriors who sacrificed for a country, which would repay them time after time with hostility rather than graciousness. They illuminate the hypocrisy of a nation that would preach the earnest need for democracy and equality abroad, while maintaining an unjust status quo at home. And most essentially they bring America’s dubious past, with respect to race relations, in conversation with its present.

All images are photographed on film.

I'm the child of Jamaican immigrants to the U.S. with a passion for storytelling. I got my first taste of an artists' life as a teenager when I enrolled in a filmmaking class at the nearby Rhode Island School of Design. I fell in love with cinema and found that the most accessible way to practice camerawork was to get a stills camera. I went on to complete a degree in Film & Television at New York University, where I would emerge a cinematographer.

My background in filmmaking heavily influences my narrative approach to photography, especially my use of lighting. As a black photographer and an enthusiastic student of history I feel compelled to tell the stories of Black America that have often been overlooked.