Pratt Cut-rate is a documentary project about my experience identifying and challenging my own institutionalized ideas of race and community within a few blocks of my parents’ liquor store on West Pratt Street in Baltimore, MD. Growing up working there, the bulletproof barrier I sat behind reinforced a false sense of security and isolation, allowing me to be apathetic and choose a convenient narrative of the people on the other side. Experience is often used to justify judgment, but through documenting and viewing intimate, everyday moments we can use parts of life we share in common to realize the importance of considering the entirety of circumstances, and even look beyond them, to see what truly defines our cultural identity and resist the confinements of inherent bias.
I had the unique opportunity to intimately photograph a community that many could not. But the fact that my parents’ liquor store was responsible for that access affected my point of view as I spent more time on the streets and in private spaces just around the corner. My parents were part of the community, but they were the part that sold stamp bags, rose pipes and Boost mobile phones. After facing these realities, I found myself concluding that although my first thoughts were critical, everyone, from the neighborhood regulars to the store owners, is part of the larger system doing their part to survive and provide for their families.
Even though it seems we're unable to escape our own bias, I ask viewers to join me in questioning and challenging the prejudices we hold of people we don't really understand. I want a deeper understanding of people and community, taking into account their circumstances and our commonalities while not allowing our preconceived ideas from family, society or personal experience define who we think they are.
