Derrick Woods-Morrow - Investigations into the Black Queer Diaspora

My work focuses on the problem of being an object of other people’s expectation, while at the same time, struggling to locate a sense of self-hood beyond those expectations. I draw from personal history, and examine the “locations” of homoerotic activity and their relation to the mainstream ideals of masculinity circulating in American visual culture. The photographs explore how desire operates in relation to cultural assumptions and stereotypes based on race, class and masculinity – highlighting my navigation as a black queer male and the resulting prejudices faced within Chicago’s north side. My engagement in this work is an attempt to locate myself in relationship to the domestic space of other males — spaces to which I am invited but that are also fraught with identifications and ideologies that do not welcome me.