With Our Eyes Closed

In 2015, I photographed the memorial site for the nine parishioners murdered by Dylan Roof at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Among those killed was the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney; three victims survived. One of those victims, Felicia Sanders said in a news interview:

“He caught us with our eyes closed. I never told nobody this.” This quote from Felicia Sanders, became the inspiration for this project and set the groundwork for continued work photographing individuals from

groups which are targeted by white supremacist and other racial, religious and ethnic

prejudiced extremist groups. Beginning with the enslavement of Africans and moving

through the struggle for civil rights to the current movement encompassed in Black

Lives Matter.

I am currently concentrating on the response to instances of violence upon victims of

hate crimes and violence based on ethnic, religious or race differences. Photography to

date encompasses photographing KKK rallies, Black Lives Matter gatherings,

Plantations and the topography of enslavement, and photographs from locations

historically significant to the civil rights movement.

Future photography will include photographing locations of lynching sites and

internment camps in the United States to depict how racial, religious and ethnic

intolerance does not confine itself to acts of isolated individuals but can and has been

used by larger socio-political bodies to disenfranchise individuals from targeted groups.