Allegra Christopher

I attribute my success to being born into both of my fields and having a deep personal connection to them. With culture-bearing, I was born into that particular family and cultural identity. It wasn't about certificates or paperwork to help you get paid - it was my self-belief in my culture and preserving it that actually pushed me into pursuing that field. It wasn't for fame or recognition, it was literally to educate my future little ones to come up. With photography, my father was a photographer, so I was literally brought up with cameras in a dark room. I didn't see anything else in life other than I just loved taking pictures of people and telling their story through the imagery. I didn't always like writing, so I liked patching the pictures together to make a visual narrative. The degrees did help, but what actually pushed me into my two fields was my intrinsic connection to my culture and my passion for visual storytelling.

Knowledge is power. Listen to your heart and your intuition. Ask questions and don't be afraid to question. If you don't feel that it is for you, then it's not right for you. Don't be afraid to ask for help and seek guidance when necessary. Don't always believe your eyes, and don't always believe what has been told to you - find out on your own. Seek the knowledge that you are looking for and don't always go to other people's opinions, because their life isn't yours. You walk in your own path. Sometimes their experiences might be a good advisor, but it doesn't always fit perfectly for you. Take the pieces that work and discard the rest.

One of my biggest challenges with photography is being a female, and an older female at that. With culture-bearing, my biggest challenge is cultural diffusion within the community - dealing with the erasure and trying to figure out how to reintroduce culture, their own culture, back into their own community. That was my biggest slap in the face. When you try to teach them and they don't want to know it, they don't want to see it, they fight it. It's within the educational system, where they no longer teach cultural identity. So you lose your language, you lose your expression, you lose your ability to create music, understand music, appreciate music. Music brings people together - to eat, to sing, to party, to mourn, to celebrate. That's my biggest problem I ended up with. And then another thing is me getting older.

Being truthful, genuine, and authentic are core values for me. Communication is the key. Understanding others is to understand thyself. I believe strongly in morals - I've always been called a Girl Scout because I was told I was too honest. I like helping others, even if I don't have it, I will help as much as I can. My students were always good about that, saying even if she has a dollar, she'll give it to you. I always promote my young people, I always listen to my young people, and their problems are my problems. I also believe in the importance of cultural identity - I told my son that if he's feeling lost, he might want to research his own culture, because the fact that he's lost it by living in the States might be why he's lost and no longer his own.