Mixed Feelings

Not everything is black and white; no one is simply one thing or the other.

Sometimes, the question “Where are you from?” feels less like a question and more like a demand to lay bare your family history to strangers because a single sentence simply cannot capture it. Identity is highly individual, yet it cannot exist without community. For bi-racial individuals, this adds another layer of complexity, as parents often do not understand what it means to grow up navigating two distinct cultural identities. Where we come from and how we were raised shapes our development, but they are not the only influences.

In this photographic reportage, I explore three individuals and three foundational elements that I believe anchor our identity: Community, Family, and the "unobserved" Self. The question of who we are cannot be answered with a single description; instead, it must be seen as part of a larger whole—just as a leaf belongs to a branch, a branch to a tree, and a tree to a forest.