Adrian Piper

"I embody everything you most hate and fear." -Adrian Piper

**REMOVED PHOTOS, THEY ARE BEING USED FOR A CLOTHING BRAND. WILL REPOST WHEN THE PHOTOS DROP OFFICIALLY.   

"As long as necessity is socially dreamed, dreaming will remain necessary. The spectacle is the bad dream of a modern society in chains and ultimately expresses nothing more than its wish for sleep. The spectacle is the guardian of that sleep."

For this project, I decided to use Adrian Piper as my inspiration. These images were taken of my best friend, my girlfriend, and myself last weekend for The Uprising Brand. The Uprising Brand sells t-shirts "for the people, by the people". The owners of the company traveled to major cities (NYC, LA, etc.) and photographed all different kinds of people in different ways, settings, and from different backgrounds to show how their t-shirts represent what America is, the melting pot. The reason why I chose to use these images is because we are all people of color and we are all American. My best friend is Black, my girlfriend is a Pakistani/Filipino Muslim woman, and I am a Hispanic woman-- we are completely different, yet faced with the same issue of inequality here in America.

Adrian Piper is very proud of being Black and through her work you can see that. She takes photos of herself dressed up in an afro, with glasses and a mustache on to represent what America is afraid of, men of color. Being proud of who you are and where you came from should not only be reserved for skinny women of a lighter skin tone; Being proud of who are you and where you came from should be reserved for those people who have the audacity to be themselves in a society that fears them.