With the help of a Fulbright fellowship, I began photographing for We Are Tiger Dragon People in 2008. 25 of the 55 minority tribes of China reside in Yunnan Province and comprise less than 8.5% of the nation’s population, with the Han representing the majority.

My mother is a member of the black Yi tribe; her grandfather was Lung Yun 龙云, governor of Yunnan from 1927-1945 and commander-in-chief of the 1st Army Group. Learning about my Yi ancestry in my mid-twenties inspired me to begin this work and is still in progress.

With a generous award from the Leeway Foundation and the Swatch Art Peace Hotel artist residency in Shanghai, I began extending the project to include ethnic minority groups outside of Yunnan Province in 2014. This project has also received support from the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Independence Foundation, Puffin Foundation, and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. I am grateful to the many artist residencies that have given me the time and support to continue working on this project, including Yaddo, the Macdowell Colony, Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, the Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred University, and the Vermont Studio Center.