STUCK

This June 2019, NYC Pride welcomes WorldPride as we mark the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising and a half-century of LGBTQIA+ liberation, pride, celebration, and continuation of fighting for equality. This project, STUCK, are self-portraits inspired by the mixture of feelings that are felt by many queer people, including myself. Excited and prideful in ourselves and our community, to reflect on the past 50 years and what we've fought for, such bliss and joy... I can walk down the street confidently as a queer man in 5-inch stilettos, nails like claws, a crop top, and glitter head to toe. But that reflection is a two-sided coin. Look how long we've suffered, and look at how many continue to suffer around the world for being who they are. Shameful of a society that won't progress out of hatred and darkness. I have personally been through a whirlwind of emotions. I have never felt more myself, and I have never felt more lost. I feel stuck. The pride and the shame that I talk about are captured through a medium that is closest to me, that I know better than anyone else does, my own body. "Body" is such a heated topic... who has rights over their own bodies, who can do what with their bodies, what can bodies look like, what can bodies be... it goes on. We are most familiar with our bodies, what we love and hate about them, what they can do, what it feels like to love, to be touched, to feel down, to be put down, to be violated. We express and experience so much of humanity and emotions through the body. My hope is for you to connect with these photos and engage in the emotions or thoughts or memories you may relate with them.