WHENEVER I COME INTO A SPACE, I imagine what stories it has to tell. It’s vital that the locations I choose for my portraits have a strong history. I began this work out of my home in New York’s Hellz Kitchen five years ago, while I was studying at the New School. I was afraid of losing the apartment I grew up in, so I began to photograph it. I was only fourteen years old when my mother died from an AIDS-related illness. It changed something within me. It taught me that nothing is permanent.

When I was a girl I promised myself that I would be brave enough to tell my story. I understood the power