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A, Veteran with her handwritten autobiography, Brooklyn NY (2025)
ANN ROSEN
archival pigment print
17H x 26W in (43 x 66 cm)
Being Seen is a community-based photography and writing project developed with women navigating homelessness, incarceration, addiction, trauma, and systemic poverty. It began in 2015 through workshops in Brooklyn shelters and later expanded through HousingPlus, a nonprofit supporting women, gender-diverse people, and their families. Participants collaborate in creating photographic portraits, using their paintings as backdrops and their writing to provide personal context.
A portable studio transforms each workshop space into a place of creative agency. Participants decide how they wish to be represented through their choice of pose, props, and setting. They also learn to make and print photographs for visual journals and collages while developing autobiographical poems and narratives through accessible writing prompts. The resulting portraits and texts are presented in exhibitions, bringing individual voices into public view. Rather than speaking for participants, the project provides the tools and conditions for them to shape their own images, articulate their experiences, and assert how they wish to be seen.
archival pigment print
17H x 26W in (43 x 66 cm)
Being Seen is a community-based photography and writing project developed with women navigating homelessness, incarceration, addiction, trauma, and systemic poverty. It began in 2015 through workshops in Brooklyn shelters and later expanded through HousingPlus, a nonprofit supporting women, gender-diverse people, and their families. Participants collaborate in creating photographic portraits, using their paintings as backdrops and their writing to provide personal context.
A portable studio transforms each workshop space into a place of creative agency. Participants decide how they wish to be represented through their choice of pose, props, and setting. They also learn to make and print photographs for visual journals and collages while developing autobiographical poems and narratives through accessible writing prompts. The resulting portraits and texts are presented in exhibitions, bringing individual voices into public view. Rather than speaking for participants, the project provides the tools and conditions for them to shape their own images, articulate their experiences, and assert how they wish to be seen.
Interest in Ann's project?
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