Jada Solèy Rodriguez

Photographs
CV
About

“The Girl I’ve Been Looking For” is a photography series that showcases the intimate discoveries of power, intimacy, and complexity within Black trans women’s lives in NYC. Through this series, I shed a light on the unspoken and unseen moments of fortitude we use to present ourselves in romantic connections, self-love, beauty, and spirituality. “The Girl I’ve Been Looking For” is a documented parallel of girlhood; one my own and my sisters, one where we discover each other in one another.

The title, The Girl I’ve Been Looking For, is a multifaceted metaphor for the experiences of trans women: constantly being “found” and “unfound” in different contexts. It speaks to the search for identity, the experience of being loved and fetishized, and the challenges of misrepresentation, whether in media or society at large.

This series is an ongoing reimagining of how trans women and femmes are visually represented, offering an alternative to the existing narratives. It is a reclamation of narrative and an ode to tenderness, authenticity, and agency— a letter to who we are and who we’re becoming.