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Lives of Meaning is an American portrait project centered on identity, ancestry, and the quiet human stories that shape history.
The project began on the set of Emancipation (Apple Studios), where I photographed local, untrained background actors from Louisiana and the surrounding South, both Black and white, who worked under grueling conditions to embody lives their ancestors once lived. With the support of director Antoine Fuqua, these portraits became a way to revisit a difficult chapter of American history through the clarity and intimacy of a modern lens.
Twenty-five of these images were commissioned by Apple, printed, framed, and exhibited in Washington, D.C. during the 2023 Congressional Black Caucus Conference, where their emotional impact on attendees affirmed the project’s deeper purpose.
Shortly after, Lives of Meaning formally expanded through a collaboration with the James Madison’s Montpelier Presidential Foundation. Working closely with Montpelier’s descendant committee, I traveled across Virginia’s Piedmont region photographing descendants of enslaved people as they confronted the absence of memorials for ancestors who labored on that land yet were never granted formal recognition.
Today, Lives of Meaning has evolved into a photographic meditation on where we come from, whether our origins are well-documented or partially lost, and how that inheritance shapes our present lives. The project honors our ancestors’ limited means of historical preservation while using modern tools to speak directly to future generations.
At its core, Lives of Meaning challenges the idea that history is shaped only by extraordinary figures. Instead, it asserts that the nation was built by ordinary people through endurance, labor, care, and presence. Their lives matter, and their stories deserve to be seen.
This project exists to preserve and to offer something forward-looking: perspective, continuity, and hope.
What Participation Includes:
A remote creative ideation session to develop a thoughtful visual approach and select locations
A portrait session accompanied by a brief recorded interview
A fully edited, professionally delivered series of up to 20 final images
Complete creative freedom. Each portrait is a singular, personal collaboration
Lives of Meaning is an American portrait project centered on identity, ancestry, and the quiet human stories that shape history.
The project began on the set of Emancipation (Apple Studios), where I photographed local, untrained background actors from Louisiana and the surrounding South, both Black and white, who worked under grueling conditions to embody lives their ancestors once lived. With the support of director Antoine Fuqua, these portraits became a way to revisit a difficult chapter of American history through the clarity and intimacy of a modern lens.
Twenty-five of these images were commissioned by Apple, printed, framed, and exhibited in Washington, D.C. during the 2023 Congressional Black Caucus Conference, where their emotional impact on attendees affirmed the project’s deeper purpose.
Shortly after, Lives of Meaning formally expanded through a collaboration with the James Madison’s Montpelier Presidential Foundation. Working closely with Montpelier’s descendant committee, I traveled across Virginia’s Piedmont region photographing descendants of enslaved people as they confronted the absence of memorials for ancestors who labored on that land yet were never granted formal recognition.
Today, Lives of Meaning has evolved into a photographic meditation on where we come from, whether our origins are well-documented or partially lost, and how that inheritance shapes our present lives. The project honors our ancestors’ limited means of historical preservation while using modern tools to speak directly to future generations.
At its core, Lives of Meaning challenges the idea that history is shaped only by extraordinary figures. Instead, it asserts that the nation was built by ordinary people through endurance, labor, care, and presence. Their lives matter, and their stories deserve to be seen.
This project exists to preserve and to offer something forward-looking: perspective, continuity, and hope.
What Participation Includes:
A remote creative ideation session to develop a thoughtful visual approach and select locations
A portrait session accompanied by a brief recorded interview
A fully edited, professionally delivered series of up to 20 final images
Complete creative freedom. Each portrait is a singular, personal collaboration