Alaina Hunt is a photographer and visual artist based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
As a Black, femme living in the shining, gleaming buckle of the Bible Belt, I have to assimilate in order to be seen by those who benefit most from the status-quo. Being expected to constantly code switch, comfort and cater to the fragility of a predominately white society makes me feel bent and warped. Hyper-visible and invisible. This distortion keeps me from wholly seeing myself. In January of 2017 I began to check in with myself once a week. I would ask myself questions: “Who am I right now in this moment?” “How do I wish the world saw me in my Blackness?” I sought out to express the vulnerabilities I had been suppressing to protect myself through the Black female gaze.
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