"If we don’t amend history by making new images and new representations, we are always going to be excluding ourselves." ~Titus Kaphar

Outdoor Ancestor is an image-forward lifestyle brand that centers Black presence in nature.

We affirm culturally-rooted stories that honor rest, recreation, and remembering as ancestral practices—alive and necessary in today’s outdoor spaces.

Our presence outdoors - rocking on porches, walking wooded trails, sipping tea at sunset, or simply being still - honors the rhythms of the land and the legacy of those who came before us.

We believe:

• Rest is revival. 
• Recreation is ritual. 
• and remembering is a form of return.

Outdoor Ancestor exists so that images of us, outdoors where we are, become affirmations. 

I created Outdoor Ancestor as a way to see myself—and us—reflected in the outdoors. This brand is both offering and archive: a space where our joy, our stillness, our laughter, and our legacy live freely on the land. 

Whether you’re steeped in nature or just beginning to explore, you belong here.

— Tonya, Photographer & Creator of Outdoor Ancestor