"Choosing More Than One Fig", 2024, digital photography
Choosing More Than One Fig portrays my perspective on being the oldest daughter and how it can manipulate my emotions, relationships, and views throughout my life simply because I was born first. In this work, there are a variety of images representing the love of one's family and the role each person plays, but it also discusses being more than the role forced upon you. A well-known passage written by Sylvia Plath uses figs as a symbol of the many paths in someone's life and having to reach out and grab one, and in this work, I mean to represent grabbing more than one fig.
"Before the Coffee Gets Cold", 2023-2024, digital photography and writing
Before the Coffee Gets Cold, is a journey through the human experience and the terms of existence. This collection of works takes my handwritten entries from my personal journal and expands them into a heightened visual experience. This work explores the reality of human life depicting scenes of family, change, habits of nature, love, connection, loss, and the state of mind.
The Queer Experience, is a three-part photo study challenging straight ideals and dynamics of our society, the following of which discusses religion, space, and queer stereotypes as well as the "queer experience".
"Ophelia", 2023, digital photography
Ophelia, in this piece, I created a classic Ophelia scene depicting a queer man wearing makeup and club attire lying in the water. In the Shakespearian play, Hamlet's actions cause Ophelia to end up in a state of madness that ultimately leads to her drowning. Which is a connotation to the concept discussing the straight perception of "gay madness" and the idea that being queer is seen as something unnatural and mentally insane.
"The Act of Praying and Disco", 2023, digital photography
The Act of Praying and Disco, where the purpose of the work is to discuss the idea of religious and queer spaces and the sense of euphoria found within each. This piece can signify religious trauma often found in the queer community and how queer clubs have become almost a religious space and community for gay people. The model can be seen in a praying stance with a "holy light", but it instead is a bright disco or techno light framing the face.
"Forbidden Fruit", 2023, digital photography
Forbidden Fruit, examines queer relationships being seen as a sin and forbidden in many religions. I created this work to highlight queerness being prejudiced as "sinful" and turning it on its head as something that was once perceived as forbidden but now evokes love and community. Many inspirations stem from homophobic innuendos and jokes for example, "Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve" and the influence queer movies have on a younger generation found in call me by your name, moonlight, etc. I also wanted to touch on the iconography of the peach and peach-colored lighting due to many queer clubs during the HIV/AIDs crisis that would tone their lights peach-colored to hide signs of illness in their guests to make them feel comfortable.