Upon graduating High School, I enlisted in the military as a United States Army Ranger. After being deployed to both in Afghanistan and Iraq, I returned to Chicago at the end of my military term in 2005. One of the things that became immediately apparent when I became a civilian was the contrast in systemic hierarchies being an African American veteran. The Army provided me with a systemic hierarchy that empowered me as a solider. But my experience as a veteran is in direct contrast to the lack of empowerment I experience through racial oppression. It's this contrast that serves as the thesis for my practice. My fondness for Chicago's local art scene emerged in 2013. Soon after, I found a passion for photography. After pursuing my MFA from the School of the Arts Institute in 2018; I began exploring the ways we interact though hierarchies, how they oppress us and how we create our own hierarchies as a means of survival. Using photography as my primary medium, I began to explore these relationships and how they impact us. My identity as a person of color is juxtaposed to my identity as a veteran; and it is this juxtaposition that serves as the thesis for my work.