Queer Babes is a portraiture series that contemplates the complex identities of queer and transgender people. My subjects are friends, lovers, acquaintances and strangers, photographed in or around their homes. I began the project when I was going through my own gender transition as a way to admire the rich queer identities around me. The title of the project references the ways in which queer people playfully express affection and admiration for each other as they eschew mainstream standards of beauty.
As transgender people gain public prominence, mainstream media promotes simplistic visions of trans identities that adhere to normal male and female gender ideals. Trans supermodels and public figures often foster the myth that trans people desire to appear the same as non-transgender people.
The project interacts critically with histories of portraiture and media representation. Historically, the portrait has been a means for privileged populations to assert their social status, while marginalized populations have been the subject of photographs that maintain their degraded status. The power of a marginalized group to take hold of its own representation has long been a pivotal part of movements for social change.
These issues are important to my image-making process. Each sitter has agency in how they are represented. We begin shooting after long conversations during which we establish a feeling of comfort with each other and agree on the direction our photo shoot will take. This allows each person to be both vulnerable and strong. They occupy their portraits with full awareness and self-possession. They confront the viewer with their gaze. These subjects know why they are here and how they wish to appear.
The tenderness and intimacy of the portraits elevates these deviant subjects to the status of icons. The depth of their subjectivity and seductiveness of their flesh is undeniable. The complexity of their appearances is uncompromising.
