My name is Danielle Mariz Berger and I am a 21-year-old Filipino-German-American photographer and visual designer. Growing up, culturally and racially, I have always identified more with my mother’s side, the Filipino side, than I have with my German [father’s] side. All my life, being biracial has given me a unique experience with my identity. However, growing up surrounded by Filipinos who have glorified Eurocentric and mixed-race beauty standards, I have set a goal for myself to use photography and visual art to question and disrupt perpetuations of Eurocentrism among Filipinos. I aim to do this by photographing portraits of Filipinos within my community to highlight and celebrate Filipino beauty among people of all ages. As an outcome, I want to uplift the Filipino community through portraiture and design to create new visual languages as a means of genuinity. As a photographer, a lot of my work within self-portraiture has allowed me to discover the impact of self-portraiture in addressing larger questions about life and existence— that generational progress starts with self-awareness. Self-portraiture has uncovered my personal truths about identity and has taught me how to be comfortable with vulnerability. However, I am looking to expand beyond the self-portrait by documenting my Filipino family and other Filipino people within my community, such as within the small Filipino church I grew up attending. After working with self-portraits for the past three years, I now want to discover familial truths by traveling to the Philippines, where my mother is from. Here, I would document my aunts, uncles, and cousins (of which there are over 30 people) interacting with each other and within their communities, doing interviews to ask about family history and personal identity as Filipinos. I want to honor my Filipino heritage and pay homage to the sacrifices that my family has had to make so that future generations could have a better life. I want to learn how American colonialism has impeded Filipino relationships with identity. My desire is to remind people of the beauty of Filipino life and to give representation to those with Filipino identities, to those who seek to communicate through the language of genuine visual storytelling. Receiving this scholarship would serve as funding so that I can actualize my vision and tell the stories of my family, who I haven't seen in over ten years.