Senior Exhibition

Artist Statement

     What does it mean to capture a moment? My work explores the delicate balance between control and spontaneity, navigating what it means to be authentic while maintaining visual cohesion and strong narrative elements. My focus is on exploring storytelling, artistic integrity, and the portrayal of diverse experiences through documentary photography. In an era when the world seems to be moving faster than we can comprehend, photography serves as a means to stay informed and gain perspective. It also serves as a way to delve into the self, as I have done in this work through my family history.

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     My art attempts to navigate the intersection of activism and identity as a white second-generation South African immigrant in the contemporary American context. Photographing protests in the United States and South Korea developed my passion for photojournalism and left me questioning my family history with race, power, and activism.  In My Bloodline is a multigenerational project navigating social justice advocacy, featuring a letter written from my grandmother to her parents, an interview voiced by my mother, and original photographs. This exhibition is a conversation between my maternal grandmother and me comparing our experiences protesting as university students against South Africa’s Apartheid in the 1960s and 70s and the Palestinian Genocide today.