In the Water, We Were Sisters: A Conversation with Priscilla Gragg

I recently hopped on a call with Bay Area based Brazilian photographer Priscilla Gragg to talk about her project In the Water, We Were Sisters and her ongoing documentation of the Afro-Brazilian art form of Capoeira.

On the call, Priscilla’s energy was infectious. It was immediately clear that she carries immense passion and devotion to both her craft and her homeland. While she works locally as a commercial photographer (primarily with children), this body of work exists as part of a long form personal project.

Capoeira, born from the resistance of enslaved Africans in Brazil, is more than a martial art. It is dance, strategy, music, ritual, and survival woven together. In the Water, We Were Sisters feels like a witness to this lineage.

Photographed in Bahia, Brazil, the series invites us into the world of two Afro-descendant sisters and explores how ancestry and the elements (air, water, fire) converge as sites of memory and power. Gragg describes the work further:

“Rooted in both the visible and the spiritual, the portraits honor the layered faiths that shape Brazil’s cultural soul—expressed through gestures, symbols, and a deep connection to nature and the divine. This work is an abstract yet intimate reflection on identity, belief, and the sacred energy that flows through bodies, elements, and land.”

What moves me most in this body of work is the reverence held within each photograph. These images honor bodies as sites of lived history and spiritual resonance. The work moves beyond visual documentation and becomes a vessel of memory, lineage, and power. A creative offering. An honoring of the layered depths of Afro-Brazilian expression, survival, and resistance.

You can find more of Priscilla’s work here.