Faces of my people is a documentary photo essay I started during my trip to Nigeria in 2021.
This series was inspired by my Grandmother and the family portraits she showed me during our gatherings.
We did not speak the same language, however, through the photos, she was able to convey the stories of my ancestors and our Adelakun lineage.
I began taking photos of my family members for memory's sake and soon I started to see the patterns of the 1940s family portraits and of my own. I was fascinated to find the similarities between black families across the diaspora. The residue of religion, culture, colonization - its influences on the rest of the world, and how they connect with Black American culture.
I aim to continue this series and share dialogue about the similarities of the people from the land of our ancestors and the bridge that connects it to the diaspora.