Cycles

The goal for this shoot was to explore the tension between Africa and its diasporic relatives. While studying abroad in South Africa, I wondered often about what my relationship to the continent looked like and how to balance the sensation of being a foreigner, but also having a deep ancestral connection that I felt but couldn’t explain. What does it mean to return to a place that you just can’t get back? How far can you reach back to recover what has been lost?

These were my questions for myself and my models. Like most profound questions, the answers are always changing and will continue to develop every time I come back to them. For now, I hope these images speak to both the beauty and complexity of long ancestral aches and our deeply personal yet collective search for belonging. Like every cycle, the beginning will become the end and come back around again.

By Alyssa Lisbon