Weekend Portfolio: Rhianydd Hylton

Hands Up Don’t Shoot by Rhianydd Hylton

Rhianydd (Rhia) Hylton is a NYC based portrait + fashion photographer whose work often aims to explore conceptualizations of beauty and identity.

“Hands Up Don’t Shoot” is an ongoing series, started in November of 2018, that deals with the epidemic of police brutality in the United States. Through the implementation of popular stereotypes and specific language repeatedly utilized in media, the series also highlights the perceptions of Black males that further contribute to this epidemic. The mixed media approach aims to illustrate how these labels are placed upon Black people with no regard for their true character, dehumanizing and criminalizing the individual as they are reduced to nothing but a Black body. 

View more of Hylton’s work here.

Instagram: @rrrhia