Current Work
Current Work
Studio as Sanctuary
Artist Statement: Studio as Sanctuary: Images of the Imago DEI
This body of work emerges from a year-long exploration of the portrait studio as sacred space—a site where image-making becomes an act of reverence. In collaboration with co-creatives, I seek more than portraits; I seek encounters with the holy. Each image is a meditation on the Imago Dei—the sacred belief that every person is made in the image of God. In the studio, something transformative happens. We see ourselves anew. We recognize our sacred worth, our holiness, our beauty, our wonder—that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
The studio becomes a sanctuary. Through light and shadow, conversation and music, stillness and presence, we co-create images that honor human dignity and divine reflection. This is a transmedia project—spanning photography, personal essay, and documentary storytelling—grounded in arts-based research. It is not only about those I photograph, but about me, the image-maker, being changed in the process. This is theology made visible. This is liturgy made luminous.
Images of the Imago Dei invites us to see portraiture not as vanity or spectacle, but as sacred work—a visual testimony to the spiritual truth that every life bears divine resemblance.
This video is the result of an image making session we did as part of our Studio as Sanctuary series, where Dr. Teresa Fry Brown’s portrait was enshrined in the Dr. Martin L. King Chapel at Morehouse College. We trace her journey and the power of portraiture.
This is a sample of video work for my Studio and Sanctuary. This was a collaboration with me, the artist Yani and the filmmaker Ali, we co-produced and directed this project in my studio.
Portrait of a Faculty
This body of work a a collection of portrait diptychs of the faculty of Columbia Seminary. A set of images of each faculty member, one in an outfit of their choice and the second in their academic regalia. As the photographer and a member of the faculty I did not include my portrait because I am in every portrait. This work is about the collegial relationship and co-creation I participated in with each of my colleagues. You see me as I see them.
From the Library to the Studio: The Scholarship of Photography
In this video series, I share the scholarship and artists who inform my photographic practice. I introduce you to artists, thinkers, filmmakers, and photographers who have been excluded from the canon created by institutions that do not center African and African American ways of making art and engaging in critical thinking.
I seek to expand the canon, redefine it, and make it my own. I also invite you to create your own canon as you become part of the canon.
Don’t simply accept those whom the powers that be have deemed worthy of study. You decide who is worthy. You decide who belongs.
