Photography

When you take away
the details what are
you left with?

Inspired by Abdou Cisse’s personal experiences being short sighted, Presence explores the notion that there is more to someone than their pre-defining features.

This led to an experiment. Abdou explored shooting over a dozen people from various cultural backgrounds in a completely different way, discovering in the process that this circumvented unconscious biases and exposed unexpected insecurities.

A year into the experiment, Mahershala Ali unexpectedly gave a voice to the project at the 2017 SAG awards...

Inspired by Abdou Cisse’s personal experiences being short sighted, Presence explores the notion that there is more to someone than their pre-defining features.

This led to an experiment. Abdou explored shooting over a dozen people from various cultural backgrounds in a completely different way, discovering in the process that this circumvented unconscious biases and exposed unexpected insecurities.

A year into the experiment, Mahershala Ali unexpectedly gave a voice to the project at the 2017 SAG awards...

.

Inspired by Abdou Cisse’s personal experiences being short sighted, Presence explores the notion that there is more to someone than their pre-defining features.

This led to an experiment. Abdou explored shooting over a dozen people from various cultural backgrounds in a completely different way, discovering in the process that this circumvented unconscious biases and exposed unexpected insecurities.

A year into the experiment, Mahershala Ali unexpectedly gave a voice to the project at the 2017 SAG awards...

Inspired by Abdou Cisse’s personal experiences being short sighted, Presence explores the notion that there is more to someone than their pre-defining features.

This led to an experiment. Abdou explored shooting over a dozen people from various cultural backgrounds in a completely different way, discovering in the process that this circumvented unconscious biases and exposed unexpected insecurities.

A year into the experiment, Mahershala Ali unexpectedly gave a voice to the project at the 2017 SAG awards...

“When you get caught up in the details or the minutiae of things that make us different, there’s two ways you can look at it: you can see the texture of that person, the characteristics that make them unique. Or you can see it as an opporuntiy
to go to war.”

Mahershala Ali

“When you get caught up in the details or the minutiae of things that make us different, there’s two ways you can look at it: you can see the texture of that person, the characteristics that make them unique. Or you can see it as an opporuntiy to go to war.”

Mahershala Ali

“When you get caught up in the details or the minutiae of things that make us different, there’s two ways you can look at it: you can see the texture of that person, the characteristics that make them unique. Or you can see it as an opporuntiy to go to war.”

Mahershala Ali

“When you get caught up in the details or the minutiae of things that make us different, there’s two ways you can look at it: you can see the texture of that person, the characteristics that make them unique. Or you can see it as an opporuntiy to go to war.”

Mahershala Ali

“When you get caught up in the details or the minutiae of things that make us different, there’s two ways you can look at it: you can see the texture of that person, the characteristics that make them unique. Or you can see it as an opporuntiy to go to war.”

Mahershala Ali

seeing past

the details

seeing past

the details

seeing past

the details

seeing past

the details

seeing past

the details

“With everything that’s going on in the media, you almost feel like you have to apologise for being... which is annoying, because when people initially meet me, they’re suddenly surprised that I have a sense of humour, that I’m not serious all the time, and that I actually can be funny.”

Selina

The biggest misconception that people have about me is that I’m just this black guy from South London. When I’m at work, for instance, I have to blend in. And I don’t think that the people there understand that I do that.”

Kieran

“The biggest misconception that people have about me is that I’m just this black guy from South London. When I’m at work, for instance, I have to blend in. And I don’t think that the people there understand that I do that.”

Kieran

“The biggest misconception that people have about me is that I’m just this black guy from South London. When I’m at work, for instance, I have to blend in. And I don’t think that the people there understand that I do that.”

Kieran

“The biggest misconception that people have about me is that I’m just this black guy from South London. When I’m at work, for instance, I have to blend in. And I don’t think that the people there understand that I do that.”

Kerian

“The biggest misconception that people have about me is that I’m just this black guy from South London. When I’m at work, for instance, I have to blend in. And I don’t think that the people there understand that I do that.”

Kieran

minutiae
minutiae
minutiae

minutiae

minutiae
minutiae
minutiae

“It’s like they think, ‘Here’s this black guy, who’s gonna be angry and difficult to work with.’ People find it weird that I’m so laid back and so soft spoken... that I’m interested in politics, and actually have an opinion on things.”

Kieran

“It’s like they think, ‘Here’s this black guy, who’s gonna be angry and difficult to work with.’ People find it weird that I’m so laid back and so soft spoken... that I’m interested in politics, and actually have an opinion on things.”

Kieran

“It’s like they think, ‘Here’s this black guy, who’s gonna be angry and difficult to work with.’ People find it weird that I’m so laid back and so soft spoken... that I’m interested in politics, and actually have an opinion on things.”

Kieran

“It’s like they think, ‘Here’s this black guy, who’s gonna be angry and difficult to work with.’ People find it weird that I’m so laid back and so soft spoken... that I’m interested in politics, and actually have an opinion on things.”

Kieran

minutiae