Yolonda Ross

FIERCE

Photograph on archival paper - 24 x 36 inches - 2021

Shanette Caywood - photographed 2021. 9 years survived - stage 4 - Metastatic breast cancer. At diagnosis, she was 33 with 2 small children and a 3-5-year life expectancy. She's still thriving.

I as the photographer, worked with several grassroots groups in Chicago that helped women of color going through cancer, as I was portraying someone with cancer on television. I photographed 5 women of color at different stages in their cancer journey from one of these groups and asked them for a word describing themselves, which was used on their "Title Cards". They signed release forms and sat for me as models. I had a gala celebrating women going through cancer and presented the 5 women with their portraits, raising money for the organizations they were a part of.

Yolonda Ross (Actress/Writer/Director/Producer) is a two-time Spirit Award nominee and Gotham Award winner for HBO’s Stranger Inside and John Sayles’s Go For Sisters. Ross, a native of Omaha, Nebraska is recognized for her work including Whitney, The Antwone Fisher Story, The Unit, and Phil Spector. Yolonda is also featured in the PBS American Masters episode How it Feels To Be Free, about black female trailblazers.

Ross has recurred on American Gigolo, How To Get Away With Murder, Terror Lake Drive 2, Baz Luhrmann's, The Get Down, and HBO's Treme. Her directorial debut, Breaking Night, aired on VH1 Classics.

Ross is a member of New York's LAByrinth Theater Company. She's performed in David Mamet's Four American Women and recently closed How Blood Go at the Steppenwolf Theater. Next up, season six of The CHI, and THUG. opposite Liam Neeson. Tiny Eve will be Yolonda's feature film directorial debut.

Artist website link