AGE: 29
BASED IN: New York
NOMINATED BY: Dawoud Bey
I was 12 or 13 when I discovered photography. I had recently lost my dad, and I had just started at this private school. I was aware that I did not meet the social norms of that setting. When I found photography, I felt like I found my identity. I would go home [to Harlem] and turn my lens on my community. I remember thinking, Why do people take pictures of still lifes and landscapes? People are way more interesting.
It’s a secondhand experience—that was what originally fascinated me with photography. When I started my professional career, working with Cardi B, I would get one minute, or something like that, between music video shoots to capture stills. In hindsight, I think about the same speed a young Flo on the train, or in Harlem, needed to get the photo. These are situations where you don’t really have time to miss. Maybe it’s a fleeting stranger, or the light changing, or a moving object. Even if I am super prepared, at some point I release and surrender.
Working under pressure is still about being yourself. I recently photographed Vice President Kamala Harris, and I was so grateful that I kept the energy and personality that I show my subjects and this landed very well with her and her. Shockingly, I made her laugh!
