Archival Project - Found Photographs

My Aunt, Shirley Moss, amassed hundreds of printed images over the course of her life. Black and white and color photography taken between the 1960s and 2000s. With no intentions of calling herself a photographer, I assume taking pictures has been for her a way of holding onto the people close to her and the things she finds herself drawn to.

As I began flipping through the piles of history in her home, I found myself moved by her way of looking at the world. A perspective I find quite unique and emotionally arresting, but also affirming to my own photographic practice. Showcasing a clearly subjective view of Black people in a post-segregation America, her photos capture life in the Midwest and Central Los Angeles where she now resides.

With her blessing, my intention is to print and exhibit these images to the public. They are currently being sequenced into a photographic monograph entitled “Shirley Moss: A Black Midwest”.