Me and This Place: 2021

Me and This Place: 2021 is the first installment of a lifelong photo essay that tracks my aging and medical gender affirmation in the context of North Cascades National Park. These self portraits were created over an eight day period at the beginning of September 2021. During that time, I solo backpacked a total of 49 miles and captured over 2000 unique frames. Every one to three years, for as long as I am physically able, I will return to the park to check in with the land and produce more photographs. North Cascades is one of the most glacier-dense places in the United States. Over my lifetime, it will change drastically as a result of human made climate change. Additionally, I intend to have more gender affirming surgeries and continue hormone replacement therapy, and over the course of this project, my body will become more feminine. As this essay grows, it will illuminate how one body and one piece of land morph over time. My second visit to North Cascades is slated for July of 2022, which is after I will have recovered from gender affirming vaginoplasty.