Toni Pitts

Cameras are phenomenal. The ability to document and capture a moment in a fraction of a second on film or on a memory card is incredible. My goal is to use my camera as a tool for good, to bring awareness and to help solving problems wherever possible. I have spent time reading about the history of our country, I have noticed several recurring themes. Historians document events, names, dates and places but photographers give a context that words cannot provide. Influences came from men and women who photographed during The Great Depression, The Civil Rights Movement and the war in Afghanistan. My goal is to follow in the tradition of documenting people events, and telling stories with my camera.

I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at the point I had to have a camera.

--Gordon Parks