Elliott’s Adoptee Identity Portrait

Elliott is a healer herself, a transracial, multiracial adoptee with a deep, tender heart. On the photographic experience: “What a unique, special experience. There is nothing like this. It's an experience that blends photography with therapeutic healing and the creative process,” she said. “The experience of being photographed this way by another adoptee was powerful and like nothing I have done before! There is something very healing about being witnessed by another, especially another person with a similar lived experience. I didn't have to explain things to Andrea (unless I felt the need to). I could just show up as me...with my vulnerable and weird parts showing too!”

On her adoption experience: “We carry and hold multitudes. We often must live in and navigate the in-between places - grey and shadowy places. This means our resilience is often not chosen but rather, a side effect. Simultaneously powerful and haunting.”