Daughters is a reflection on where I come from and where I’m going. As a descendant of enslaved West Africans brought to Haiti, the daughter of Haitian migrants who made a home in Florida, and someone carving out her own path, I’ve always lived with the tension between honoring the past and seeking my own beginning.

This series is inspired by Daughters of the Dust by Julie Dash—a film that held up a mirror to the quiet sacrifices and deep bonds between women. My own great-grandmother never left Haiti, but she gave everything she had to help her grandson pursue a better life. That act—done with love and vision—is one of the reasons I get to live the life I do now.

The women in these photos—whether sisters by blood or by spirit—remind me of that kind of strength. We begin together, grounded in connection, but we each move toward our own horizons. There’s so much nuance in that: the longing, the reflection, the hope. The sand throughout the images became a symbol of that for me—how we shift, how we hold on, how we carry so much and still keep moving.

The opening image holds that feeling: the daughters standing still in water that’s already in motion. It’s a moment of pause, of looking ahead, of honoring what we carry. Daughters is about matriarchs who saw further than they were allowed to go. It’s about sisterhood, both chosen and inherited. And it’s about the quiet courage it takes to dream of something more—and go after it.

June 2021, Noordhoek Beach Cape Town, South Africa

Models - Samantha & Kimberley Hammond

Photographer & CD by Sheilby Macena

Assisted by Ayesha Kazim and Sophony Henri

Styling by Andrea Louis and Gcobisa Gee Yako