Politics on Live

This project follows North Carolina State Representative Renée Price during the 2026 Democratic primary. I photographed her across public forums, community gatherings, early voting sites, Election Day interactions, and finally back in her office. On one level, this work documents a local campaign. More importantly, it examines how political representation is built through presence, conversation, and repeated contact with a community.

As a Chinese exchange student who just recently came to the United States, I was drawn to this subject both by my interest in politics and by my experience of learning a new civic culture from the outside. I was interested in the ordinary, physical spaces where democracy becomes visible: meeting rooms, sidewalks, polling places, and small exchanges between a candidate and her voters. Rather than focusing on spectacle, I wanted to stay close to the quieter gestures of listening, waiting, answering, and showing up. Through these photographs, Renée Price appears not simply as a political figure, but as part of an ongoing relationship between public office and everyday life.