I Was Here began in 2016 with a set of Ancestor Spirit Portraits created by photographing contemporary African Americans. These models are standing in the gap as visual representations of Ancestor Spirits. The portraits embody Family: mother, father, brother, sister. They form connected, intangible images that convey the transitional dignity of the African to African American individual and family – imagery mostly missing in America’s visual history. The “here” of I Was Here begins with an honest look at the history of place, uncovering the truth of a People’s contribution to the founding of our Country. The I Was Here project exposes the ancestral roots that exist within buildings, cities, and ourselves. The project offers us a chance to think about who we are to each other, who we are as a nation and how we can work to repair the wounds in our citizenship created by enslavement.