Discovering My Colors is a photographic exploration of identity, ancestry, memory, and belonging.

Born in the Netherlands, shaped by Curaçao, and carrying Surinamese roots, I became increasingly aware of the spaces between cultures, languages, and inherited histories. Rather than searching for a fixed answer to who I am, this project became an exploration of how identity is formed and how it continues to evolve.

Through photography, archival imagery, self-portraiture, abstraction, and poetry, I approach the body as a living archive, a place where personal and collective histories intersect.

The project unfolds through three interconnected chapters. The Dance of the Ancient Souls explores ancestral memory and the traces left by previous generations. Ode to My Parents reflects on love, loss, and the people who form our first sense of belonging. In Mapping the Invisible: Traces of My DNA, self-portraits and abstract works transform genetic ancestry into a visual language of color, memory, and emotion.

Rather than defining identity, Discovering My Colors embraces its complexity. It is a reflection on the histories we carry, the stories that shape us, and the connections that continue to exist between past and present.

- Camille Renée Devid -