yanissa x

“When I was growing up in Brooklyn I remember seeing a black man on Pacific street wearing an orange suit and everybody stopped. I never forgot that. He looked like a god. This was in the ’50s. That was a transcendent moment for me. He seemed to be moving in slow motion and it just blew my mind. Clothes and jewelry have always been very important to me in observance of how people present themselves because that’s empowerment. Everything I do is about self-presentation and empowerment. You know why it’s so important? Because even people who have very little can control how they present themselves to the world. If you have no money, no nothing, you can throw on a scarf, put your hat to the side and walk out in to the street and feel good. It’s style. Diana Vreeland said if you’re not born with it I feel sorry for your ass.”

"An individual photograph is like a single cell, or a single voice; I think that a body of work comes into being when those individual elements constellate and resonate with one another."