“I’m not interested in what’s beautiful. I’m interested in what’s true.”
-carrie mae weems
This portfolio is a collection of image-based work rooted in expression, presence, and visual storytelling. This space reflects my interest in aesthetics, identity, and the ways creative direction takes form through being seen.
“mad black student”
Photographed by Kiasa Monae of Bright Visuals
“Mad Black Student” explores academic disconnection through the lens of boredom, burnout, and quiet frustration, while also questioning what it means to sit in institutional spaces when urgent realities are unfolding elsewhere. Inspired in part by my own experience of feeling unmotivated and emotionally disconnected in school and college, the series reflects a tension between academic performance and the desire to engage more directly with the real conditions shaping Black communities, including survival, instability, and systemic neglect. Through visual irony, deadpan humor, and gestures of disengagement, the work asks what it means to be present in spaces that can feel increasingly disconnected from the world outside of them.
featuring “Mad Ecologies”, radical harm reduction collective and initiative, formed in Philadelphia in 2022 by a group of harm reductionists, artists, and community members. The project focuses on resisting the mainstream co-optation of harm reduction and centers on the experiences of marginalized groups—specifically poor, disabled, and queer people who may use drugs or engage in sex work.
“beauty and becoming”
Photographed by Kiasa Monae of Bright Visuals
“Beauty and Becoming” came from a desire to rediscover beauty and style in a way that felt more aligned with who I was becoming. As I navigated my reversion to Islam, this series became a way of exploring modesty not as restriction, but as elegance, intention, and self-expression. It was also shaped by a growing awareness of how Black femininity is often filtered through oversexualized standards of desirability, visibility, and performance, especially for young Black women learning to be seen through a world that rarely offers softness without spectacle. Through all-black styling & layered silhouettes, this work reflects my attempt to reclaim beauty outside of that framework. It is an expression of my desire to engage fashion, art, and femininity in a way that felt more intentional, spiritually aligned, and rooted in a different kind of beauty.
