I Told Them About Us 2018-Present Is a photography project that explores the desperate grasp on intimate relationships and the interconnections of Latinx diaspora--the study of phenomenal experiences of any person who is bridging two cultures, both physically and philosophically.
Focusing on my hometown Añasco, Puerto Rico with its unnoticeable importance and weighted bonds, and of what we see or what we don't, but still feel. In the making of this work, I struggled with the idea that “telling them about us” exists as an acceptance--the invitation of the gaze under the presence of otherism. The use of hard flash within these images is to acknowledge whiteness, challenging its colonial role, its presence, and the desire of the other. In conjunction with visually existing as obstructed space between myself a diaspora migrant and my family. This work explores the relationships under established hierarchical powers, successions of everyday happenings and the cultural constructs through family dynamics. With an observation of shared environments which becomes distant when addressing the displacement and gaze of an identity.
As time goes on, my migration and the abuse of political powers continue to influence the course of relationships, the construction of memories, the impermanence of self and the intensifying gaze.