Housing for Haiti
Displaced communities, authoring their own image.
Following the catastrophic 2010 earthquake, hundreds of thousands of Haitians lived as internal refugees in tent encampments — without basic sanitation, facing endemic violence against women and the constant threat of eviction. The Self-Portrait Project brought its method to these communities so people could narrate their own experience, and put those self-portraits to work in advocacy from the camps to Capitol Hill.
The context
Following the catastrophic 2010 earthquake, hundreds of thousands of Haitians resided as internal refugees in tent encampments lacking basic sanitation. These settlements experienced endemic violence targeting women and faced constant eviction threats with minimal security.
The work
The initiative collaborated with FRAKKA — the Force for Reflection and Action on Housing, a Haitian housing-rights coalition — alongside the Under Tents campaign. Rather than be photographed as subjects, participants authored their own self-portraits to narrate their lived experience. The work spanned the Mozayik, Cité Soleil, Camp Grace, and Solino communities.
The advocacy
In partnership with Amnesty International and documentary filmmaker Jon Bougher, the project carried this photographic documentation to Capitol Hill and to university venues across the United States, mobilizing action on Haiti's housing emergency — the self-portrait as a tool not just of dignity, but of organized change.
In the press
“each participant presenting themselves as they wish to be seen”
The Guardian — “Haiti discovers the self-portrait” (2013)
Have a project with a purpose?
If you're a cause, a campaign, or a community that wants people to author their own image — not be photographed, but seen as they choose — tell us. We bring the method where it's needed.
hello@selfportraitproject.com · +1 917.714.3492