Pariahs

The further back we travel in time, the scarcer representation of people living outside of society's conventions becomes. Yet, we know that they existed and lived, primarily thanks to journals, written accounts, or the occasional rarity of someone wealthy and/or privileged enough to flaunt these conventions without consequence. This series seeks to offer a new visual history, one that is fabricated but in many ways true. Using digital and analog techniques paired with found antique cabinet cards, I am creating new historical photographs representing those who have been historically overlooked or rejected. In our current time queerness, kink, eccentric fashion, and witchcraft, among other things that were at one point considered radical or even criminal have become widely accepted and in some cases mainstream. What if this were the case in 1880? What kind of photographs would we find in bins and boxes and albums at the flea market or thrift store? What kind of people would we see?