Through My Lens
Through My Lens chronicles my wanderings and engagements with various accessible and inaccessible sites in Chicago’s neighborhoods and the Chicagoland area. As a Black wheelchair user, I employ my photography as an evidentiary tool that addresses issues of access during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through My Lens was highlighted in 2022 as a Streetside Exhibit at UIC's Gallery 400 in Chicago. The goal of this continuing and growing project is to bring attention to the ways disability is defined by societal, environmental, social, and physical barriers that restrict leisure and quality of life for people with mobility impairments. The concept of Through My Lens was created during my experience as a Residency Fellow With 3Arts and Bodies of Work in 2021. What started as a workshop in conversation with other disabled artists has turned into a deeper conversation through my photography work on how we view accessibility as a whole in Chicago.
Industrial Nature, 2018
Overlooking the Chicago River at Ping Tom Park. Perched atop a concrete ledge is a goose. Beyond the ledge is the river, where a brown industrial apparatus kisses the banks of the water. The sky is a bright pale blue, the skyline peeks out from the distance.
Straight Down Franklin, 2020
A view down the middle of Franklin Street, entirely empty of cars. The street is covered by the industrial elevated tracks of the “L” train. Patterns of light dapple on the empty gray street, creating an interplay of light and shadow. A single pedestrian crosses the expansive street.
Lakeshore Blues, 2020
Old Town, 2020
Beach Ramp, 2021
A view of the Chicago skyline from the middle of North Avenue Beach. In the center of the beach is a soft blue plastic ramp, with sand on either side. At the end of the ramp is a building that looks like a boat, with white walls, porthole windows, and bright red steam pipes. An American flag blows in the wind against a pale blue sky.
Broken Concrete, 2021
A gaping hole reveals rusty steel rebar poles in the middle of the concrete path along the lakeshore. The blue-green of Lake Michigan ripples along the edge of the path.
Broken Concrete, 2021
A gaping hole reveals rusty steel rebar poles in the middle of the concrete path along the lakeshore.
Inaccessible, 2021
A scuffed concrete city curb, a yellow plastic accessible ramp, and the distance between the two. Beyond the curb is a sidewalk, with a tree trunk, and the edge of a fence.