I took a 30-day vacation to 6 major European cities. I shot standard travel photographs and wrote about my experiences.

The use of traditional photography in this series reproduces familiar visual signs, and the poetry accompanying the photographs arranges them into new conceptually layered pieces. The expectations of each work have been forged from the language of art and literature that audiences have acquired from birth.

What’s more important than the image is who took the image and why? Bringing the artist identities, by using poetry, into the equation, alters our perception of these standard images, and how we create our own personas, and how truth is only relevant to the viewer.

This idea – the art of stretching truth and its relevancy – comes into play with my identity: gay, black, American, millennial. These all factor into the poetic voices in each piece.

The photographs set up expectations only to have the poetry completely deceive, all the while making you believe the artifice that has been presented.

All these pieces are weaves of lies and truths that cannot be truly verified, the modern global tall-tale.