Queerness
2023In this project I explore what queerness is to other people. In the past I have created work that helps me express myself and my identity, but with this body of work I decided to focus much more on other people, looking at their identities and experiences and what queerness is for them.
As much as I wanted to represent people as who they are, I didn’t focus so much on specific labels within the work (although I did ask everyone who participated to ensure they are represented, gendered and referred to correctly). While labels are extremely helpful in communicating identity, people exist as themselves and that is really what I wanted to show, the people rather than the words used to describe them. This allowed me to showcase the diversity within queerness and how being queer is different for everyone who identified as such. It also allowed me to break free from stereotypes that are often used to portray and identify people as queer, which I felt was really important in a realistic and honest portrayal of the LGBTQ+ community.
Poetry Series
In this series I asked each model to select a poem from an anthology of 100 Queer Poems, which I then printed them on using the cyanotype process.
The aim here is to allow the individuals greater control over how they are perceived without having to affix an exact or absolute meaning to each image.
Portrait Series
Unlike the poetry series, in this series of images the models are shown without additional context or material. The reason for this is to offer a different view, to allow the models and the images to show the viewer everything they need to see.
With this series and the last, one part that I feel is especially important is the use of cyanotypes. I wanted to create these images in a non-traditional way because I wanted to create something slightly different from the standard photographic print that adorns the walls of more or less every gallery and many homes around the world. I also wanted to create something that was unique, a single unique object which can never be identically replicated even with the same negatives, which leans onto the fact each print is made by hand; They are hand mixed, coated, printed and washed and that has allowed me to put so much time and passion into every single image I have created here.
Above all else with this project, I hope the models feel as though they have been honestly and accurately represented through their prints.
