STILL I RISE 2019 - 2026

Portraits of Black women defined by presence, authority, and the refusal to be diminished.

Still I Rise is a long-term photographic project honouring the presence, resilience, and influence of Black women across generations.

Created during a period of heightened political and social awareness around racial justice and gender inequality, the series responds to the central role Black women have played in movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too. Rather than framing its subjects through narratives of struggle alone, the portraits emphasise dignity as a deliberate posture — an assertion of presence in the face of historical invisibility and misrepresentation.

The women photographed come from diverse fields including literature, activism, politics, journalism, and the arts. Each portrait becomes an encounter with a figure whose work and voice contribute to shaping contemporary cultural discourse — not as symbols of a movement, but as individuals whose authority exists independently of the causes they have shaped.

In these images the body does not perform spectacle or vulnerability. Instead it holds space with composure and authority — still yet unshakeable — revealing a strength that needs no validation from the gaze directed at it.

Still I Rise does not document resilience as something earned through suffering. It presents it as something already present — carried in posture, expression, and the quiet refusal to be diminished.d.