STATEMENT OF WORK

I use photography as a way to better understand my place in the world and create an undeniable record of the existence of the people and places I value. Having been born at the onset of the AIDS crisis, much of my life was spent without the guidance and support of queer elders. It is in large part through the photographic records of my forebears that I have been able to access and comprehend the stories and cultural impact of those who were lost to death and the closet. Through my work I apply the lessons of cultural survival and the ability to find joy that my ancestors employed in the face of loss, grief, and caretaking. Much like those who came before me, I feel dissatisfied with the world and use artmaking to present an alternative realm that is centered on generosity and care. By bringing together photographs of people, communities, spaces, and histories in sequences and artist books, I hope to pay tribute to the influences that have shaped my experience as a gay man and make work that is an intergenerational link between past, current, and future generations. 

I work with multiple cameras as a way to access an expansive way of seeing that is responsive to my surroundings and circumstances, and utilize each tool’s potential to render and transform space, light, and bodies. Working in black and white allows my images to exist in an indiscriminate time, placing them in conversation with photographic traditions I am indebted to. Light is used to allude to the guiding presence of our elders, while illuminating possibilities for futures grounded in visibility, pleasures, curiosity, and perpetual exchange. I am interested in making photographs that transcend the constrictions of linear time and specificity of place, allowing for movement between past, present, and future, the spiritual and corporeal. I draw from an archive of work made over the past decade and by sequencing my photographs based on formal relationships rather than chronology, location, or a specific camera the photographs exist in a continuously evolving, unfixed narrative. Pulling from my archive as I continue making work reveals surprising relationships between the photographs, activating the potential for them to be understood anew as time passes. These practices allow me to locate moments that communicate past a specific time; one that is informed by history but is not yet known. 

I photograph in locations - people’s homes, studios, spaces of refuge in the landscape -  that have direct ties to a queer photographic history, and hold importance to myself and the people being photographed. Utilizing the power of photography, I transform the recognizable world into one of mystery, and aim to give visual form to the intangible connections queer people have to the natural world and the experiences of our queer forefathers and mothers. I approach photographing the landscape and people with similar interests, and by pairing portraits with photographs of the landscape I draw parallels between the life force of our bodies and the environment, as well as the threats each face. Landscapes and interiors void of people add psychological tension to the work and allude either to feelings of anxiety I face navigating the destructive nature of contemporary society, or a space where those pressures vanish. 

People in my work are transported to a space where static social expectations are replaced by a sense of magic, generosity, and possibility. I take care to establish an environment where people feel able to express their social-sexual imaginations freely and present themselves with agency. I value the exchanges that occur when making photographs with people and through the images I aim to represent the unique shared intimacy that is established during our time(s) together. In an era when our bodily autonomy, health, and well-being are treated with disregard and disdain by those in power, making photographs of gay and queer people through a lens of compassion and care is a political act that gives power to our individual and collective experiences. I believe that, as David Wojnarowicz wrote, ‘...if I make something and leave it in public for any period of time, I can create an environment where that object or writing acts as a magnet and draws others with a similar frame of reference out of silence or invisibility’.