About Me
Born and raised in Washington, D.C.
As I move through life, the world reveals itself to me through my viewfinder. I use film photography and interdisciplinary image-making to examine how identity, power, myth, faith, and performance shape the body.
The energy starts with the violent displacement of my ancestors and the legacy of how Blackness has been misrepresented and mishandled by institutions. This energy has manifested into my stubborn urge to decolonize the camera and use it as a weapon.
My work is rooted in the language of the inner city, drawing from the wells of the Black interior, excavating history and questioning the society I live in. I build my images from research, symbolism, and recontextualization, and place my subjects in conversation with history and the noise of the present as it happens.
My portfolio is an investigation into how identity is constructed, rehearsed, and performed; it’s a collision of the personal and collective.
I’ve been blessed to exhibit my work throughout Washington, D.C., Maryland, and New York City, and I am a recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities FY26 Media Arts Fellowship.
My theatrical credits include assistant directing Wipeout at Studio Theatre, The Dragon at Spooky Action Theatre, and Secret in the Wings at The Theatre Lab, alongside extensive behind-the-scenes work as a carpenter, electrician, props technician, and assistant stage manager throughout the D.C. theatre community, including but limited to, Arena Stage, Studio Theatre, Mosaic Theater Company, Keegan Theatre, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
Current Reading:
That’s How They Get You (An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor) Edited by Damon Young
Raps of Resistance (How Kendrick Lamar and J Cole Reignited a Hip-Hop Tradition) by Jeremy C. McCool and Earl Hopkins
Getting to Reparations (How Building a Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past) by Dorothy A. Brown
troyjohnson45678@gmail.com