08/21/2022
I first met SeQuoia more than six years ago at a talk about birthing justice in Syracuse, NY. I was pursuing my master’s degree at the time and had just begun photographing a portrait project focusing on women and families navigating pregnancy loss and miscarriage, and was so glad to meet a wonderful young doula doing amazing things within our community as she worked for change within the maternal healthcare system. We made this portrait together shortly after, and have been collaborating to share mothers’ and birthing people’s stories ever since.
Since that day, I’ve been lucky to photograph SeQuoia many times as she’s worked with families and helped them navigate the complexities of prenatal and postnatal healthcare, welcome and nurture new life within their families, and provide a safe space for Black women to process generational birth trauma all while advocating for the health and well-being of her mothers and their loved ones.
Today, I’m so grateful to have the chance to help share her story on , and to help raise awareness for the amazing things both she and her colleagues are doing within the Syracuse community to advocate for radical change in maternal care.
Deepest thanks to and at NPR for the many hours of support, countless picture edits and endless emails as we’ve refined copy, tweaked picture edits and finessed captions and headlines these past few months—I’m so grateful to have had such an amazing team to help me through this process.
Thank you too to , & for helping find my way to the earliest iterations of this portrait project during my time at —it’s wonderful to see these stories come full circle after so many seasons.
And thank you to the amazing woman who made this all possible from the very beginning. thank you for trusting me with your story, and the stories of the families you’ve served. It’s been such an honor and a joy to capture these moments together, and I’m grateful to have had the chance to play a small part in the amazing work you do.
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