This series started when I was strolling in a Park in New Orleans and in an unprecedented and impulsive manner these words came out of my mouth:

“Hi, I’m a photography student and feel very insecure approaching strangers to photograph. Therefore, my teacher assigned me to come back in an hour with at least 6 portraits of people I don’t know. Would you be so kind as to pose for me?”

I was born in 1978, became a mother in 1999 and later again in 2006 to two young women and yet people who get to know me for the first time usually think I’m around 30-something. Genetics are good, I dress casually, and have a round face which is usually related to sweet and young women. When working with my students, I’m usually asked where the teacher is... Ha!

I have no idea why I chose those words that day, but I liked the way they would look at me and the camera while trying to help, as a counterpoint to the predictable poses and expressions I usually get when working on assignment as a professional photographer.

These portraits are about the assumptions we make every day and how we navigate the ones others make about us.