Beginning in 2019, I began asking folks who self-identify as “queer” to pose for a portrait and to write a paragraph or two based on the following prompt:

Do you think you have “gayface”? If not, do you try to make yourself visible to other queers? If so, how? Do you have racial, religious, ethnic or other identities that intersect with your queerness? How do they impact one another? If you are visibly queer all the time, please reflect on how that makes you feel in certain spaces.

because we’re here, we’re there, we’re everywhere - but we have vastly different lived experiences depending on who we are and where we call home. By collecting and sharing stories and images online and in person, my goal is for participants to feel seen and heard, for the queer viewership at large to feel more connected, and for folks from outside the lgbtqia+ community to gain an understanding of what life might be like if they were themselves queer. At its core this project is about visibility, representation, connection and empathy.

I began shooting and exhibiting across the country, and subsequently having meaningful, connected conversations about our unique and universal human experiences along the way. Since starting the project I’ve photographed in 6 cities, had 7 exhibitions, and created over 120 portraits.

I’m often asked how long I intend to keep the project going. My hope is that someday we’ll have made so much progress that the project feels irrelevant. Until then.