What project were you investigating or developing during your residency?
I was working on Where the Body Bows, a photography project about religious spaces and the people who use them. I was interested in spending time in these spaces and paying attention to how people gather, interact and go about their everyday lives.
Being in Kaduna also made me think about these relationships within a place that has experienced religious conflict. I didn’t have a finished story when I arrived, and I am still working through what I found.
In what way did the environment, resources, or community around you influence your residency experience or its outcome?
The biggest thing for me was simply being there for an extended period of time. Proximity changes how you see a place. Things that I might normally overlook became things I wanted to pay attention to because I was seeing them every day. I also really enjoyed the community at Open Arts. I met people, had conversations and gradually became comfortable there. It honestly felt like home, and that became an important part of my experience of the residency.
Looking back on the residency, is there a specific experience or moment that continues to resonate with you?
I think what stays with me most is that feeling of home. I didn’t expect to feel that way when I went to Kaduna. It was in small things: seeing the same people every day, having conversations, sitting around together. It made me think about how a community like that is built and maintained by the people in it.
Did any new ideas or projects emerge during the residency that you hope to continue developing?
The project itself isn’t finished, but the residency changed what I want to look at next. I’ve become interested in taking the questions I started with in Kaduna into other places and looking at how people with different religious beliefs live alongside one another in everyday life. I’m still figuring out what that work will look like.
What is currently inspiring your thinking or practice (a book, film, conversation, research, place, etc.) and why?
A conversation I recently had about research has been on my mind. We talked about how research doesn’t always have to produce an immediate solution. Sometimes you are simply trying to understand something better. I’ve been thinking about that in relation to my photography. I like spending time with a place and paying attention to what is happening there without necessarily knowing what the final work will be. I think I’m becoming more comfortable with that process.