The Guyanese American Dream Project SU Senior Ryan Ally and his thesis on his family’s heritage in Guyana

By Sofia Abdullina

In 2017, Ryan Ally began his undergraduate experience at SU as a computer engineering major. However, it didn’t take him long to realize that his true passion was photography, so he switched his major to pursue a BFA in Art Photography during his sophomore year. Now a senior, Ally is using his passion for photography, as well as curiosity on his own identity, to shine a light on his family’s home country of Guyana, South America.

Growing up in New York City, Ally began to experiment with photography in high school. Overtime, his passion and love for the art pushed him to dedicate his time, effort, and attention to his senior capstone project on his family’s heritage and Guyana. He titled his photography project “The Guyanese American Dream,” describing it as his way of capturing memories and individuals that are meaningful to him.

“The country of Guyana is something that I wasn’t really seeing a lot within my years of being in photography and it’s a topic that I was confused about,” Ally said. “I don’t know too much about my family’s history and where they came from, so I took it upon myself with this project to really just uncover all that, discover things about myself, and where I come from.”

Ally always had a lingering curiosity about his family’s home country of Guyana, and he felt that many of his questions were left unanswered. A child of immigrant parents, Ally said he sometimes struggled with his own personal identity. However, much of what this project encompasses has helped Ally become more knowledgeable about his personal individuality.

“I didn’t know exactly what to say in the questionnaires, ‘what’s your race, what’s your ethnicity, what do you identify as’,” Ally said. “It was a question that I never properly understood and knew how to fill out. With this project that was always a question of mine, how do I identify myself, and use this as a direction to figure that out.”

A lot of the inspiration for this project revolves around Ally’s family memories. Using the activities, people, and family traditions that he can remember, he crafted his project into what he ultimately desired.

“I started to work on images that showed places that I’ve seen before, within my photo albums,”

Ally said. “Or, things that you would normally see in the country that I’m familiar with like fishing, for instance, is a big thing that the men in my family do a lot.”

One aspect of his project that Ally felt strongly about portraying to viewers is the reality of life in Guyana. He aims to represent the beautiful aspects of his family’s home country, while at the same time shedding light on less portrayed aspects of Guyana.

“I do want to navigate that line of beautifying and making it beautiful. Because there is the notion that the tropics, like Caribbean communities – they are very beautiful – the landscape is very lush and nice,” Ally said. “It’s not problematic, but it does get into a case that I’m just making everything seem really pretty, and sometimes it’s really not like that.”

Ally’s mother, Diana Ally, has been one of his biggest supporters not only throughout the duration of this project, but in his life. Diana immigrated from Guyana to the United States with her family when she was 14 years old with support from her parents, who wanted to provide more opportunity for

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their children. Since then, Diana started and raised her own family in New York City.

Ally has traveled to Guyana a handful of times. On his most recent visit, his goal was to capture his parent’s history, who they are, and how this compares to his life in New York City. When this interview was conducted, Ally and Diana were in Guyana, and Diana said she could not be more pleased with the work that her son has been doing.

“I am so happy and proud that he decided to base his project on the lives that the people live here, and he is basing it on his family –the lifestyle, the culture,” Diana said. “We are here right now to finish up what he is doing. We all support him.”

Both she and her son have realized the difference in life in Guyana compared to their lives in the United States, Diana said. She said that this project has made these differences more real to Ally, and she is pleased that her son is taking the opportunities that are offered to him in the United States.

Diana will continue to support Ally throughout his journey with his project, and she said that his strong focus on his career makes her happy as a mother.

“For me, I did not have that opportunity, but for him, he can do this,” Diana said. “I always say, ‘Aim for the stars.’ Go ahead with what your mind tells you to do, and follow your dreams.”

Ally’s main goal for this project is not only to uncover the mysteries of his identity, but to give his audience an outlet to which they can relate. He hopes that by reflecting on his own relationship with his family’s home country, and how that relates to his life in the United States, he will be able to connect to his audience.