una vida linda

Abstract

As a photographer I have made a clear choice to become a voyeur in my own community. The camera lets in something that is a part of me but no longer all of me. It reflects my past and also gives me the power to see more clearly. The camera allows me to see structures of race and gender in my community while questioning the invisible forces that have shaped these constructions. This process has a psychological, economical, physical and spiritual impact. There is a constant tension between the world I live in and the world I was once entrenched in. I lived a life full of complication, a life filled with violence and inequality. As a photographer I am consciously detaching myself from this world. My world is now an academic world, one of educated privilege, and I am no longer part of the world of constant poverty. I have accepted this challenge. To leave the world I came from, and to enter a new one that may not be accepting of my past, is equally challenging.