I want to create a project where the viewer is forced to look directly at my subject and not be able to look away.

I think being at a school like Harvard, in a predominantly white environment, feels ostracizing. I enter spaces surrounded by white people and feel the gaze of a white history preying on me. Over the past semester, working on a film about a Black women who feels like her humanity is not seen and having to make that space for herself, has inspired me to make a photography exhibit that forces audiences to see Black women’s humanity.

As the title suggests, my project aims to give black women their flowers, to have their presence be acknowledged, and highlight the effort that it takes to get where they are.

Inspired by artists like the artwork of Ja’Tovia Gary, Kathleen Collins, Julie Dash, Zanele Muholi, and Kehinde Wiley, I photographed Black women in ways that emphasized their presence in spaces where people often try to force them out.

To highlight the space that Black women take up in the environments that they inhabit, I used flowers to depict their presence and ultimately their legacy.

My photos were taken at inside of Harvard Common Rooms and at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

I feel like the visual medium of photography or film can speak louder than any other. No matter the language that someone speaks, the voice from the image can still be felt.