Winged Warrior
KARL-HENS POMPILUS, Winged Warrior, 2024, RA-4 print
When I moved from Haiti to New York at eleven years old, my cousin Endy was the only family member my age who lived here. We grew up together in a small home in Mount Vernon with my aunt and uncle. He was my only friend.
While I struggled with learning English—going to a new school, and deeply missing my parents and speaking Creole—Endy fought for his health. He was born prematurely (6 months old), and I watched him face severe complications growing up.
Now that he’s older, I visited home to photograph him as a means to reconnect and document the changes in his body. He’s a man now with scars of the past. Although I’m older than Endy, I continue to look up to him for his resilience. No matter what, he continued to move forward. He had no choice. I’ve internalized this philosophy as I press on in my life here.
In a way, I’ve experienced the American dream that every Haitian kid, in some form, has longed for. I’ve always wanted to document my culture and my people, but felt that, because I left at such a young age, I didn’t really know what my culture was anymore. Ironically, I started working on a project about my people, and the first person I photographed was my cousin, with whom I grew up.
Karl-Hens Pompilus (b. 1996, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; lives in Montréal, Québec) was born in Haiti and moved to the United States pursuing the idealistic “American Dream.” After realizing it wasn’t available to him in the traditional sense, he picked up a camera and began creating his own dreams—metaphorical worlds that transcend the physical. Through photography, he discovered success and fulfillment, and he continues to cultivate this vision through his art. Pompilus has worked with brands including On, Versace, Marc Jacobs, and i -D magazine.