MasculineUS Project is built slowly—conversation by conversation, bench by bench, frame by frame. It’s an ongoing documentary practice, a growing visual archive, and part of a larger research project asking how masculinity shows up in the lives of women of color, especially across the African diaspora. This kind of work doesn’t come out of a studio. It comes out of time, travel, listening, and care.
If you choose to contribute, you’re not just “donating to a project.” You’re helping sustain a living record of people who are often misread, misnamed, or left out of the frame entirely.
MasculineUS Project operates as an independent practice. Your contribution goes directly into sustaining this body of work, not into a large institutional overhead.
Your support helps cover the real, everyday costs of documentary and research work, including:
- Fieldwork and travel – Moving through neighborhoods, cities, and countries to meet participants where they are, not just where it’s convenient to shoot.
- Equipment and archiving – Keeping cameras, audio tools, and storage reliable, and preserving images and stories in ways that will outlast any one platform or trend.
- Translation, transcription, and research – Respectfully documenting stories across languages and cultures, and grounding the work in sound, ethical scholarship.
- Community engagement – Sharing work back with the communities that make it possible through prints, pop-up exhibitions, talks, and workshops.
Ways to Contribute
You can support MasculineUS in different ways, depending on your capacity and comfort:
- Financial support – One-time or recurring contributions help stabilize the practical side of the work. These funds support ongoing fieldwork, printing, and research-related costs.
- In-kind support – Space for community gatherings, exhibition venues, research partnerships, or access to archives and local networks can be just as vital as funding.
- Amplification – Sharing the work with your networks, inviting MasculineUS into conversations, classrooms, or panels, and helping these stories reach people who need to see them.
If you are part of a university, foundation, gallery, or community organization interested in collaboration, there are structured ways to partner that respect both the project’s independence and your institutional requirements.
Ethics, Consent, and Care
MasculineUS Project is grounded in research ethics, informed consent, and respect for the people whose stories appear in the work. This practice:
- Does not “extract” images or stories without permission.
- Prioritizes participants’ safety, anonymity (when requested), and control over how their images are used.
- Treats each photograph and interview as part of an ongoing relationship, not a one-time transaction.
Contributions never buy access to individuals or influence which stories are told. They help ensure the project can continue to operate with integrity, slowness, and care.
Stay Connected
If you’d like to contribute, explore partnership, or learn more about how funds are used, you can reach out directly through the contact page. You’re welcome to ask questions, request more detail about the project’s methods, or propose a form of support that feels aligned with your values.
MasculineUS Project is, at its core, about making room—for postures, stories, and lives that refuse to shrink. Your contribution helps keep that space open, and helps make sure this archive doesn’t just exist, but endures.
