'House Rules'
SOPHIE MING, 'House Rules', 2024, Digital photo, mixed media collage
A group of Haitian girlfriends sit together in a pizza parlor—mid-game, mid-moment. Their expressions carry focus, amusement, quiet confidence. The green tiles and red booths frame the scene, but the story lives in their body language: the unspoken familiarity, the ease of shared rituals, the small acts that build camaraderie.
Image IDs: The small figurine was gifted to me by the twins in the photo—it’s a Namoradeira from Brazil (they’re Brazilian and Haitian). The photo in the corner is of my mother’s parents. The flag in the left corner is my brother’s—he left it with me and my mom before returning to Ghana.
House Rules is a group self-portrait capturing a moment of closeness between myself and my Haitian sisters—dear friends bound by love, shared experience, and heritage. As a first-generation Haitian-American, my portraiture is an act of preservation, a way to document and honor the ties that bind us. Through this image, I aim to underscore the importance of documentation and sisterhood—serving both as memorabilia and as a reflection of our continued presence and the evolving ways we depict cultural belonging.
Sophie Ming is a self-taught portrait and fashion photographer born and raised in New York. Her work explores themes of identity, self-expression, and human connection, with a strong focus on documenting women and femmes, particularly those of Black identity. Through both environmental and studio portraiture, she captures the nuances of selfhood and intimacy—whether framed against the textured backdrop of New York or through bold, evocative color choices.
In 2022, Ming debuted her solo exhibition Girls and Their Vices, a visual exploration of adolescence and girlhood. Ming’s practice is rooted in storytelling and documentation, creating images that highlight the individuality of her subjects while inviting a sense of collective familiarity and introspection in the viewer.