Attending King College Prep on the south side of Chicago, there were no photography classes due to inadequate funding. So, my mother enrolled me in the After School Matters photography program. Here, I was taught by Tony Smith how to properly work my Canon rebel t6 I received for Christmas the prior year (2018). Tony Smith showed us how to work a camera, backdrop, and any basic knowledge for photography. It was the following school year where his equipment wasn't accessible that I decided to rebuild a photography studio in my bedroom. I saved up my checks, bought a Godox AD Pro200, one seamless backdrop, and a trigger. I would then use my friends as models and begun building, unbeknownst to me, a portfolio. I named myself “Aphrodite ” Aphrodite insisting on the idea I must reflect beauty and love through my camera. Tony Smith's program had only lasted 8 weeks in the summer and 6 in the fall. So, my junior year at King (2021-2022), desperate to continue creating and photograph new people, I looked for anything involving photography. On my quest I stumbled across thousands of dollars of equipment and requested permission to build an impromptu studio in a room abandoned by the school. Granted permission, I begin photographing everyone I could. The next two years of photographing my peers and using what Tony Smith had taught me I decided to attend Columbia College Chicago to further my skills. I was only able to pursue these dreams because of the after school matters program. I believe every community needs these type of programs. I think every kid, regardless of back ground should be afforded the same resources. Every kid interested should be able to begin creating on larger scales before the age of 20. Allowing them to begin their careers young and set them up for success for young. Short term, my focus as a photographer has been to give minorities a space in editorial fashion that we typically are not afforded. My idea of giving back to low income communities is making art they can see themselves in. Since I started photography at 13 I've been photographing black and brown youth, giving them space to display who they are and see beauty in themselves. I've done over 200 photoshoots each one being a youth from a low income background. I was even able to have one of my muses displayed on a building downtown Chicago. For me, this was so important. I find many young adults my age who cannot afford opportunities as such and work with them to create photoshoots and it directly opposes the negative stereotypes placed against people from my background of never being able to be super models. Long term, I would make it my job to reflect this beauty back into communities like the one I come from by one day opening free photography studios across the nation. This program would prioritize teens and young adults living in low-income households and then hold spots for everyone else. Coming from a low-income single parent household I strive to give more opportunities to young adults and teens who struggled as I did. There is unlimited amount of talented people in the world, however, lack of consistency is at times their strongest contrarian to their goals due to lack of resources. Reflecting beauty and love would not stop at my photographs, but it would progress through helping kids like me, find their passion and use photography as a tool to capture beauty and what they want the world to see.

In a world where mental health is severely overlooked, I believe the need for free therapy and wellness centers would benefit many greatly. If each community were graced with a resourceful community center where members of the community could come to get free therapy sessions, activities to relax their minds and ease anxiety, and a general place for them to come when in need to human connection, many mental health problems would greatly decrease. This center would be government funded, so it would also be equipped with trained professionals like psychiatrists, therapists and doctors who would genuinely care about their patients. These centers being in every neighborhood would make mental health resources more accessible. Place like Sweden have already implanted free public mental health care systems as such and it is why they were named a top performer of well being. This mainly due to their free health care, I think implementing this world wide would reduce the current mental health crisis.

13-year-old me shook so many sets of film her hand must’ve grown tired until eventually she wondered how this would look on a professional camera. What if she could capture the world from her eyes. After receiving my first canon camera in 2018 I quickly drew inspiration from Tyler Mitchell, the first black photographer to shoot the cover of Vogue at 23 years old. I wanted this for myself. I wanted to have a luxurious studio where I could bring in my friends and photograph them. A space where our Pinterest boards and visions could come alive. Reality hit quick when I acknowledged my single mother household could not make that appear from thin air. My mom stared in disbelief as I broke down my twin sized bed in preparation for my first photoshoot. With my passion for capturing beauty and bringing my visions to life a streak of determination set me on fire. I could not afford the luxurious studio, so I built my own at home. I worked jobs over the summer and paid for my own backdrops and lighting equipment so I could get use to studio photography. The following fall semester I attended King college Prep, a school with no funding for their art programs if any existed throughout the school at all. I found a room full of old photography equipment that hadn’t been used in years since the former photography instructor had found work elsewhere. I started a club and in addition to teaching myself, I taught my fellow classmates how to model and express themselves. Creating the studio in my room at 13 was an act of passion that would build the foundation for my now path as a fashion photography student at Columbia College Chicago. I explored my talents more by styling, organizing, and planning my own shoots until I had somewhat perfected aspects of my passion. Just as I had taken apart every piece of my small bedroom at a low-income housing property I now, at Columbia College Chicago, exercise that same work ethic now building sets piece by piece. In this studio I have built stages, a 9 by 9-foot box, a fur wall and much more to emphasize the beauty of the black youth. What started in my bedroom with 1 light, was me wanting to stray away from Black trauma and instead, document every reflection of Black beauty I witnessed. “No Black pain. I turn down trauma roles.” Said the youngest executive producer of a Hollywood film, Marsai Martin, words that defined my portfolio. At 13 I had decided to label myself as Aphrodite believing it to be my responsibility to reflect the beauty and love I seen in my community with my camera. Color, shadows, and vividness are all defining points of my work which accentuate every muse of mine to make you pay attention to them. Through my determination I have practiced empathy and not only learned to work with others but understand them. I believe my best qualities lie in the humanity and hard work I was tasked to understand at 13 to now create the portfolio I have at 20. Seeing the fruits of my efforts actualize at Columbia College Chicago, a photograph of one of my muses remains at 618 S Michigan on the side of the building. A defining point in my career, I have been featured in 2 exhibits prior to turning 20 and intend to keep make my subjects the center piece of the love and beauty Aphrodite is.

Deciding to become a fashion photographer when I was 13 years old was not expected. After seeing Tyler Mitchell, the first black photographer to shoot the cover of Vogue, I dreamed of creating on that scale. I wanted to use my peers, Black teenagers, who I believed to be strikingly beautiful, as muses. I wanted to create editorials and magazine worth images that reflected the Black youth. My single mother household, a woman who was by the book to say the least, my mother had no experience in the fine art field in any shape or form. My mother is a property manager and prior to that she served as a receptionist at many banks. Her idea for me was to become successful through the education system. Naturally, the day she'd find me taking apart my small bedroom located on the South Side of Chicago, so I could create a photo studio in my room, she was concerned. She was supportive, yet still inexperienced in world of expression. When she bought me a polaroid camera in 7th grade, she didn't imagine I'd be inviting preteens into our house to substitute for the lack of a studio. Realizing I could not invite every single model into our house, I started a photography club at my school, a school that did not care for Fine art in the slightest. I was still able to build a foundation for my portfolio and after graduating I would decide to attend Columbia College Chicago. I hadn't applied anywhere else upon finding out they had a photo studio. I was determined to chase this passion of mine and so when counselors imperatively instructed us to apply to 3 schools, I'd only applied to 1. Fall of 2023 I reached campus and found out there were a list of prerequisites you needed to take to even enter the photo studio. This made sense, mostly, but determined to take advantage of a studio I never had as a high schooler, I emailed the head of the photography department, Verse Engelhard, and showed him my portfolio. He granted me access to by allowing me to take sophomore year classes simultaneously with my freshmen classes that would allow me to use the studio. I'd spend my freshman year taking pictures of any and everyone so I could adjust and perfect my lighting. My sophomore year I'd see an intense artistic growth, the outcome of endless challenges. the main challenge being how I could hardly register fit school due to owing them $4,000. My world was quickly shattering. The idea of not being able to attend Columbia and create anymore sent me into a deep depression. Neither of my parents could afford the bill in such little time and nor did I know I had such little time to rectify the issue. I was lucky to be granted an emergency aid fund that would not be available to me anymore once used to get me into my sophomore year at Columbia College Chicago. From that moment forward, I'd decided to not only make the best of every day I had and to do all I could to make sure I could continue chasing my dream as a fashion photographer who highlights black muses. This scholarship would ensure I continue that dream. graduating Columbia College Chicago debt free but also able to use resources from this school would relieve me of stress but also make me equipped to continue pursuing m career in image architecture. I would be able to continue uplift the Black youth through my work.

The beginning of the 2020's was a rough time. Everywhere you attempted to find peace was met with despair and death. Art, being a direct reflection of the human. condition had begin to dull as did the world around it. Though on the edge of 15, it came as no surprise that with the grey spread of life, media had become grey as well. Movies and other mediums noticeably lacked color and life, much like the world around it. This is why photography and design became an integral part of rejuvinating my hope. With photography I was allowed to not only capture still moments of time and cherish them forever but I was able to create my own world that hadn't quite surrendered to all around it. Being able to shoot in a studio furthered my world building skills and offered a place of escape. In this world I centered individuals who typically were excluded from high fashion. As I progressed in this passion I implemented design elements to highlight aspects of my subjects and change narratives on them and what it meant to be them. This was specifically done with youthful subjects. I had grown up consuming media always curated by elder generations and to me, this was a huge issue. I looked around at my peers, seeing their beauty and talent and believing why couldn't we be supermodels and high fashion forward. Why did we have to wait till we graduated with college degrees to enter these artistic fields when we were already doing those things as young teens. Photography allowed me to change that narrative. I started creating a new narrative at 13, photographing other 13 year olds and doing so out of pure innocence and fun. Unbeknownst to me I was beginning to document not just my life and culture by a whole sub genre of youth's culture. At 20, photography has become a life line of mine. Most importantly because I now feel the responsibility to make other people aware of things they do not see typically. It is imperative to me that color, fashion and shadows are captured not only to be seen but to be enjoyed. Each photography of mine has reminded me of the beautiful vividness that remains in this trying world. For me, a selection of images serves as an informational book, as history. It provides you with means of escape, a slowness otherwise not welcomed in the capitalistic country I reside in. Projects using fashion as a vessel of expression and color as an aspect to empower muses excite me the most. Design tools such as photoshop, Lightroom, adobe 3D, have all served as amplifiers of these projects which allow me to continue creating a world that helps the youth continue to create and feel as though they belong. Photography is my beacon of hope.

Social media became a complete frenzy upon finding out 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell had become the first youngest black photographer to photograph the cover of Vogue in all its 132 years. I was 13 and at the time mistakenly believed Tyler Mitchell was 19. I told myself, "Before you turn 20 you have to do something of that scale" I was ambitious. Attending King College Prep on the south side of Chicago, there were no photography classes due to inadequate funding. So, my mother enrolled me in the After School Matters photography program. Here, I was taught by Tony Smith how to properly work my Canon rebel t6 I received for Christmas the prior year (2018). Tony Smith showed us how to work a camera, backdrop, and any basic knowledge for photography. It was the following school year where his equipment wasn't accessible that I decided to rebuild a photography studio in my bedroom. I saved up my checks, bought a Godox AD Pro200, one seamless backdrop, and a trigger. I would then use my friends as models and begun building, unbeknownst to me, a portfolio. I named myself “Aphrodite photos” Aphrodite insisting on the idea I must reflect beauty and love through my camera. Tony Smith's program had only lasted 8 weeks in the summer and 6 in the fall. So, my junior year at King (2021-2022), desperate to continue creating and photograph new people, I looked for anything involving photography. On my quest I stumbled across thousands of dollars of equipment and requested permission to build an impromptu studio in a room abandoned by the school. Granted permission, I begin photographing everyone I could. The next two years of photographing my peers and using what Tony Smith had taught me I decided to attend Columbia College Chicago to further my skills. Here I kept in mind what Tyler Mitchell did and told myself, "No one can do this for you but you". Being 18-year-old freshmen I had no access to the school's studio or equipment as prerequisites were required. I decided to reach out to the head of the photography department (John Engelhard) looking for access based on my knowledge from Tony Smith and experience from the impromptu studio in the school and my room. I was granted permission and at Columbia I learned to build huge set designs such as stages, 9ft x 9ft boxes and more to evolve my world building and photography. During every break I am in the studio, inspired by Tyler Mitchell to create on a grand scale. Specifically, the winter 2025 break would test my strength the most as I would travel an hour every day the studio was open to the studio and back. I would get up at 6AM, catch the bus there and create till the studio closed at 5PM. During this time, I would use everything taught to me in the fall 2024 semester to get better with lighting direction and project management. I learned to do these things from Professor Diana Vallera and John Engelhard. As a result of my education from Tony Smith, Diana Vallera, John Engelhard (a.k.a Verser) and Tyler Mitchell's inspiration, I would create a photograph that would be chosen to be showcased on the side of Columbia College Chicago's building at a little over 15 feet tall and 8 feet wide on Michigan Ave. My Photographic education has made me a person with a reason in life; to take the beauty I see in others and show it back to them. This is irreplaceable to me and as I continue my education at Columbia College Chicago it has become the foundation of my desired success. To further this beauty and do as I intended with my art, I would make it my job to reflect this beauty back into communities by one day opening free photography studios across the nation. This program would prioritize teens and young adults living in low-income households and then hold spots for everyone else. Coming from a low-income single parent household I strive to give more opportunities to young adults and teens who struggled as I did. There is unlimited amount of talented people in the world, however, lack of consistency is at times their strongest contrarian to their goals due to lack of resources. Reflecting beauty and love would not stop at my photographs, but it would progress through helping kids I was once like, find their passion and use photography as a tool to capture beauty.

A camera is only trying to replicate the human eye. Capturing color, movement, shadow with the shutter, placing value on what we see. Freezing it in time and making it ours to keep, forever. Being a young black girl from the south side of Chicago I try to capture what I see, beautified. Contrary to popular belief the Southeast side of the city is beautiful. Beautiful people decorate the streets, vivid trees danced along the sidewalks and color highlights the sky. Each time I click my shutter I hold the images dearly. Then, I was introduced to the downtown area, Wicker Park, Lincoln Park, the Osaka Graden and more. Pressing my shutter again and again, because even though I don’t do environmental photography, each place reveals something new to me that can be transferred into the technical side of my lighting. Seeing these places when the sun sets, as the moon shines down upon the lake, highlighting only parts of the DuSable Point, as the streetlights dance on each person walking down the streets of Wicker Park, I’m lucky enough to see a new perspective and bring that with me to photograph fashion. It is only through travel and being in places that show me new perspectives am I allowed to grow. Upon hearing my University, Columbia College Chicago, offered a study abroad program to Japan for 2 weeks I became ecstatic of all the perspectives that would await me if I could afford to go. Traveling, even only 20 minutes from the Southeast side of Chicago to North and Northwest areas, broadened my perspective as young person. Becoming accustomed to the culture of Japan would make me adapt to their different customs. Particularly, their use of technology and religions, and history. My visit to the Osaka Garden made me much more intrigued by the culture. Wanting to know more about their architectural decisions as it remained the only place on the Southeast side to offer such rich cultural importance outside of my culture’s own. The architecture forced me to photograph it different as to make sure the details were properly displayed. My desire to be in Japan, any place that would force me to photography and capture art differently, grew ferociously. Different cultures force you to do that. They force you to look at things differently and demand you to change your tradition to embrace new ones. Studying abroad would offer me a chance to not just embrace a new tradition but reflect as an individual about what I define as comfort. As a fashion photographer, it would expand my color palette and respect for the arts. With traveling would come new knowledge to learn and admire. In any profession you must never stop being a student which would be my goal in studying abroad; to continue being a student in a new place, to understand new individuals offer my respect for their architecture, art, way of life, and fashion. Studying abroad would also teach me a newfound level of independence. I would have to learn to conduct myself properly in an unknown place and build a character learning to interact with people I’m intrigued to know more about. Taking my camera everywhere to cherish the memory my eye just experienced. To be able to say I walked new streets completely different of those in Chicago, engaged with new people, appreciated new art and architecture, would be the opportunity of a lifetime. Coming back, my creative perspective would grow so much and help me succeed at Columbia College Chicago and demand more of what I've already shown. My work ethic would not only improve but my motivation would be endless and help me secure a level of dedication that would guarantee my success.

Social media became a complete frenzy upon finding out 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell had become the first youngest black photographer to photograph the cover of Vogue in all its 132 years. I was 13 and at the time mistakenly believed Tyler Mitchell was 19. I told myself, "Before you turn 20 you have to do something of that scale" I was ambitious. Attending King College Prep on the south side of Chicago, there were no photography classes due to inadequate funding. So, my mother enrolled me in the After School Matters photography program. Here, I was taught by Tony Smith how to properly work my Canon rebel t6 I received for Christmas the prior year (2018). Tony Smith showed us how to work a camera, backdrop, and any basic knowledge for photography. It was the following school year where his equipment wasn't accessible that I decided to rebuild a photography studio in my bedroom. I saved up my checks, bought a Godox AD Pro200, one seamless backdrop, and a trigger. I would then use my friends as models and begun building, unbeknownst to me, a portfolio. Tony Smith's program had only lasted 8 weeks in the summer and 6 in the fall. So, my junior year at King (2021-2022), desperate to continue creating and photograph new people, I looked for anything involving photography. On my quest I stumbled across thousands of dollars of equipment and requested permission to build an impromptu studio in a room abandoned by the school. Granted permission, I begin photographing everyone I could. The next two years of photographing my peers and using what Tony Smith had taught me I decided to attend Columbia College Chicago to further my skills. Here I kept in mind what Tyler Mitchell did and told myself, "No one can do this for you but you". Being 18-year-old freshmen I had no access to the school's studio or equipment as prerequisites were required. I decided to reach out to the head of the photography department (John Engelhard) looking for access based on my knowledge from Tony Smith and experience from the impromptu studio in the school and my room. I was granted permission and at Columbia I learned to build huge set designs such as stages, 9ft x 9ft boxes and more to evolve my world building and photography. During every break I am in the studio, inspired by Tyler Mitchell to create on a grand scale. Specifically, the winter 2025 break would test my strength the most as I would travel an hour every day the studio was open to the studio and back. I would get up at 6AM, catch the bus there and create till the studio closed at 5PM. During this time, I would use everything taught to me in the fall 2024 semester to get better with lighting direction and project management. I learned to do these things from Professor Diana Vallera and John Engelhard. As a result of my education from Tony Smith, Diana Vallera, John Engelhard (a.k.a Verser) and Tyler Mitchell's inspiration, I would create a photograph that would be chosen to be showcased on the side of Columbia College Chicago's building at a little over 15 feet tall and 8 feet wide on Michigan Ave. My Photographic education has made me a person with a reason in life; to take the beauty I see in others and show it back to them. This is irreplaceable to me and as I continue my education at Columbia College Chicago it has become the foundation of my desired success.