Your
GENDER IDENTITY
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
RACE
WEIGHT
PHYSICAL OR MENTAL HEALTH
AGE
is NOT an inconvenience
I strongly believe that artists- photographers, specifically- have a lot of control in terms of what sorts of people get admired or featured or held up as beautiful. If you’ve ever had to hire a photographer for anything, I’m sure you’ve noticed that a great majority of their portfolios prominently (and, in some cases, only) feature fair-skinned, fair-haired, thin, able-bodied folx.
All of that sounds like an exaggeration, I know, but it’s true.
This fact occurred to me a couple of years ago and since then I’ve made it my sort of mission to ask myself, “Who isn’t represented enough? Who isn’t represented at all? How do I hold myself accountable for that?”
As a photographer, I strive to give potential clients the opportunity to see other people with bodies or relationships or perceived imperfections like their own depicted in a photograph or series of photographs that are executed with the same care, technique, and quality as those photos of normatively “pretty” people.
I think that being intentional about curating a portfolio/social media presence that showcases bodies and relationships that aren’t necessarily mainstream (i.e. all bodies on a boudoir blog, queer couples of any combination, polyamorous relationships, queer/poly families) is a really revolutionary way to create a sense of inclusivity where there so typically isn’t.
I don’t want to be stuck with life the way society tells us it is— I want to make art that pushes back, art that acts as a megaphone— a visual voice— a tool to help empower people with confidence and worthiness and validation in the only way I know how: photography.
"When we are engaged in love, we humans are at our best and most resilient. The love in romance that makes us want to be better people, the love of children that makes us change our whole lives to meet their needs, the love of family that makes us drop everything to take care of them, the love of community that makes us work tirelessly with broken hearts."
—adrienne maree brown