Ancestors Never Die is an ongoing conceptual mixed media project that reimagines ancestral presence through photography, data, and alternative processes. Each artwork features a portrait of an imagined ancestor surrounded by constellation-like visualisations based on real datasets of ancient African empires.

The portraits are generated using AI, trained on thousands of images of Afro-descendants, and lit using references from the artist’s own studio photography.
Each figure becomes a poetic synthesis of history, memory, and identity — not a single person, but a shared lineage.
Around them, data visualisations in the form of constellations depict variables such as the empire’s duration, geographic spread, number of generations, location on the continent, and leadership gender.

All artworks are printed by hand as cyanotypes — a historical photographic process known for its deep Prussian blue tones.
Once associated with royalty and ceremony, this blue becomes a symbolic backdrop for ancestral tribute, merging digital tools with handmade printing to create images that feel both sacred and archival.