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

As the photographer behind Outdoor Ancestor, I create images that affirm our connection to the outdoors as both sacred and everyday. Each image is an affirmation — a way of saying we were here, we are here, we will always be here.

The land holds our stories, and I frame them as reverence, reflection, and celebration.

What I capture isn’t just scenery — it’s evidence of our deeply rooted connection to the natural world and our right to be seen in full color beneath the open sky.

I see through a lens of legacy.
My camera is an altar.
Every image, an affirmation.
I am a photographer — seeing us clearly, fully, and rooted. 

~ Tonya

✨ photographer & creator of Outdoor Ancestor ✨