COLLECTION TWO

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STUFF THAT'S LIKE PHOTOGRAPHY

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COLLECTION TWO | STUFF THAT'S LIKE PHOTOGRAPHY |

Family Pictures

This series of digital chromogenic prints is made up of colorized black and white photographs of transgender women mounted to faux-snakeskin with metal staples. The first three in the series depict elders–trans women who came before me–and the final image is a self portrait. From top left to bottom right, they are titled, Portrait of Grandma Elbe, Portrait of Mother Christine, Portrait of Sister Lurdes, and Portrait of Daughter Charlie.

Me and This Place: Self Portraits in North Cascades National Park

“Me and This Place” is a long form photo essay that tracks my aging and medical gender affirmation in the context of North Cascades National Park—I plan to add to this body of work every few years for as long as I am physically able. North Cascades National Park is one of the most glacier-dense places in the U.S. Over my lifetime, as a result of climate change, it will change drastically alongside my body as I continue hormone replacement therapy and have more gender affirming surgeries. As this essay grows, it will illuminate how one body and one piece of land morph over time. These images were made over my first two trips to the park in the summers of 2021 and 2022.

Self Portraits One Through Four

I made Self Portraits One Through Four—Self Portrait with Flowers and Catheter Bag, Self Portrait Through Mirror with Blemish, Self Portrait in Shower, and Self Portrait on Bed—during my recovery from gender-affirming vaginoplasty in the spring of 2022. These photographs were shown as part of my undergraduate Honors Thesis, “The Art, Theory, and Practice of Transgender Life.” The frames shown in the center image were made by me out of chemically-ebonized red oak and mahogany.