This project, "Interrogating Stereotypes," began several years ago, when my son, a young black teen, began to feel the impact of negative racial stereotypes in his daily life. As a mother, I cherished his beauty as a human being, and could not grasp how that had suddenly become invisible to the world. I began to photograph him and his friends in earnest to preserve for me and for others the innocence and inner beauty of these young men.

In this work, I have been moved by a question posed by Anthony Kwame Appiah, "What do we owe strangers by virtue of our shared humanity?" I ask that question of the viewer in these photos of black men in my life - young, middle-aged, and old.

The faceless photos serve as an invitation for the viewer to reflect on their own projections onto people they may not know but feel compelled to judge.