REMEMBER IT IS POSSIBLE TO FEEL THIS WAY (2022-)
This series focuses on my son and my partner, a nonbinary transgender father. While some important images of LGBTQ families exist, there are few well-known photographs of transgender parents and young children. Many of our most iconic LGBTQ photos are instead of chosen families of friends and lovers -- and for good reason. Being trans or gender nonconforming often means that we've been rejected by our birth families and that we have to create new networks of loved ones within our LGBTQ communities. The project of having children through adoption or pregnancy can seem fraught with obstacles, maybe nearly impossible. More than that, pictures of queer life are often limited to those of our youth. What do we look like when we get older, when we enter middle age? We have few images to chart queer and trans aging, and it can be hard to picture our survival, maturity, and even happiness in the future. New legislation is currently attacking health care for transgender children, taking away bodily autonomy, and limiting our ability to even talk about queer and trans experience. LGBTQ adults are depicted in the conservative media as being a danger to children. My intimate, close-up photographs are a response: they picture a queer and trans family at home during this time of continuing assault on LGBT rights in the U.S. Taken with a Mamiya 645 medium-format film camera, they show a father-son relationship and challenge what we imagine when we think of masculinity, fatherhood, and family.
