Cultural Diversity In Different Genre's in Photography

Hi Everyone!

We are starting off today with a special project of mine. Growing up I remember there weren't alot of dolls that looked like me. I remember that my mom had got my alot of Barbie dolls and then later I got my first doll that was of a different race. It really discouraged me because that's all I saw was...not to be mean, but skinny white dolls. I wished that they could make one that was a child of color. Then one Christmas, my mom got me a Hawaiian doll. Okay, Mattel was getting there. Then I think around 6th grade when I was just about close to not wanting to play with dolls, one Christmas I finally got a African American Ballerina doll. talk about being excited and over the moon. I played with her so much and I thought, finally a doll that is ballerina and she was black. It made me think I had never seen a black ballerina in ballet at all. Never saw anyone of color in that profession. That memory stuck with me for a long time.

When I did sports in high-school and college, I also found that there weren't alot of black kids that swam. They were either volleyball players or track stars. Sports runs in my family and each person did good at their sport. My dad ran track and played football. He was an awesome baller in Bowling. My half-brother was amazing at track and football and then there was me. I was the odd ball. I wanted to follow in my dad and my half-brothers footsteps, but I also felt like there was a shadow over me. Every expected that I was fast just like my dad and my brother. I was fast, but it also put me in a slump my junior year. I loved music. Music was my little escape from everything. I played 4 different instruments and played in 2 different orchestra's. I loved being in the orchestra's! Music helped me with self doubt, depression and also education. I was good at drawing and loved animation and video game designing

I went to college and majored in graphic design, but what I was looking for wasn't at the college I was at. So I had went to a few colleges until I found the college that was offering Computer Animation. I went through the course and then my financial aid dried up, so I had to quiet school. I did alot of things on my own and learned alot of things on my own because I loved the arts. Photography was one of them. I became a portrait photographer for two photography companies and I loved it, but I felt i was limited and restricted of creativity.

Later I was able to go back to school and graduate. Sometimes you have change your career to survive, but I continued creating art. Then the pandemic hit. That was tough for everyone and still is. People started showing their true colors. So I learned how to shut the noise off and got back into my photography and I knew I wanted to do something even more creative. I kept practicing and learning different techniques that I didn't learn before. It felt like a drug. That was all I could think about was to create something that would be meaningful to others. Then it happened that same memory of the black ballerina doll. I thought why don't I create a project that showcases people of different ethnicities in traditional clothing of their nationality in a ethereal, fantasy genre. In magazines and entertainment, and the arts. There just isn't enough representation of ethnicities in the forefront.

The idea began as a draft and it took some months to actually know what I wanted to do. So i just went ahead and began the project. The project was to bring people of different ethnic backgrounds and put them in a ethereal/fantasy genre. Showcasing the richness of the culture and their traditional clothing. I conducted interviews with each person and their perspective as an American and also people that we mixed with a ethnic background. The first case study were Asian Americans. I put out a model call for this group and I got 5 people that were interested in the project and felt this was a good idea. The main objective of this project is to showcase each culture in every platform, create a magazine and really get every ethnicity noticed and how beautiful they are. Both my kids are Asian and Black and the most important thing my parents always told me never to forget where you came from or who you are. You are a unique individual you are very special. As I talked to my models they had the same response that they grew up with. I want to be able to pass this down to my children, but also to share with others so that they can journey the experience with me. This is an ongoing project and it just keeps growing and growing. I love learning about different cultures and other people because it's important and that's how we learn about others, but also ourselves.