Iron Inferno

Iron Inferno is one in a series of photographs paying homage to the Jacob Lawrence's classic 1943 painting The Ironers. I have been obsessed with that painting for years, how it conveys the subjects' struggles and strength and struggle in abstract color blocks and stylized forms interact. My photographs contemplate what has and hasn't changed in the almost a century since then, exploring race, history, and an every-woman in America.

What I like about this picture is that the subject is clearly of our time, but she’s in a classic Harlem Renaissance pose. Her strength and focus, which are so reminiscent of Lawrence’s subjects, are timeless.