“My story is no different from women who look like me,” says Emily Sujay Sanchez, a Bronx-based photographer of Dominican heritage, who recounts a story of trauma, survival, and healing that first took root when she picked up the camera at the age of 23.
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“I had just moved back to Providence, Rhode Island, after having my son. It was a really rough time,” Sanchez says. “ I had this baby and separated from my son’s father, right away. I was suffering from postpartum depression, though at the time I didn’t know what it was. I couldn’t find work, and then when I did it was an overnight job one hour away from home, working in the coat checkroom at a casino. I was going through it.”
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But providence, as it were, intervened and Sanchez enrolled in a photography course being taught at a local school. “I took into to film and darkroom and I will never forget the feeling because I was able to quiet everything that was going on at the time,” Sanchez says, then stills herself, holding back the tears.
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“I still remember the first photographs I took. My instructor sent me out and said, ‘Take pictures of what attracts you and look at the lines’ — whatever the hell that meant!” Sanchez laughs. “The city is deserted, there’s nothing really going on. I was walking around this area and there was a diner. I saw a waitress outside smoking a cigarette on her break. Her eyes were glazed and she was completely in her own world. I asked if I could take her picture and she said, ‘Sure.’”
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