the river, 2026, archival pigment prints

the river is a place I grew up knowing as a home. In the middle of the Mohave Desert in the western United States where my Grandmother resides. Where family came together and where I found peace and escape. This series faces the taint from trauma after a sexual assault onto a place associated with nostalgia, love, and memory. Using the water itself as my safety, sand as a stain, and burning the clothes I was wearing when it happened I am able to reclaim it as my own again. This project is my return to the river for the first time since my experienced trauma. I explore what it means when physical trauma alters the weight of place and the connection of the body to land.

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