This ongoing project is an attempt to bring awareness to the issues that plague many inner city black communities, like Chester, throughout America. Most importantly, though, it’s an attempt to show the resilience present in these communities. I was besieged while witnessing the issues weighing heavily on the lives of the people in this community. In experimenting with multiple exposures, I attempt to speak to the complexities that are so tightly woven into their lives. I wanted to create images that had layers of understanding in them, where one could see more of the true complications of life in Chester.

If you walk these streets, you pass people in a trance, people who speak without being heard. You see children with shallow eyes, and deep scars. Ghosts are everywhere, fading from neglect. People are forced to carry this burden and thus required to be strong to withstand it. In the continuation of this work, I wish to thoroughly explore the dichotomy present in the community. The interrelated nature of both scarcity and the resulting development of strength required to overcome such a crises.

The political necessity of documenting the community for positive change is a driving force in my pursuit of this work, but the most significant reason lies in the deep attachments I formed over the years of working in this community. My investment in the welfare of these individuals is what keeps me returning. My only desire is that when this work is complete, it shows the care I have for these families who have embraced me as one of their own.

Leave a Comment