MIXED
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Dates2020 - Ongoing
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Author
- Location Lisbon, Portugal
At its heart, MIXED is an exploration of racial and cultural identity. It deals specifically with people that have mixed heritage and captures the essence of what it’s like to be mixed-race. It explores the experiences of each subject but also echoes my own. Humanity’s tribal nature is such that we constantly look to fit in and being mixed race often means sacrificing parts of oneself or one’s culture in order to do so. Each shoot starts with a face-to-face conversation about what it means to be mixed race and our experience of growing up in two (or more) worlds/cultures but never being fully being part of them. The conversations focus especially on the contradiction of fitting in everywhere but nowhere at the same time and the resulting shoot is a collaboration that encompasses the themes considered.
An ongoing fine-art documentary project, MIXED discusses themes relating to racism, xenophobia and cultural suppression, yet is unashamedly hopeful. Mixed race people are living proof that different cultures can live and love together. In a time where racial purity is an unwanted part of the modern zeitgeist, and with the rise of fascism and right-wing extremism, it seems poignant to have this conversation about race. As the World becomes more globalised and interracial relationships are normalised, it is not just a refreshing realisation that the children of the future will almost certainly be mixed race but in reality, when we look at humanity’s history and our own DNA, we discover that racial purity is not simply undesirable but also a wholly unachievable ideal.