Practice.

I am an artist and photographer working primarily through portraiture. I use light, composition, gesture and theatrical elements to make photographs about how people are seen, how they present themselves and what they keep from view.

Gay and queer life is central to my practice. I am interested in the experience of hiding, the choices involved in becoming visible and the communities in which people find belonging. I want my photographs to contribute to greater understanding and acceptance. Making our community seen is my form of activism.

I establish the conditions of a photograph, but an encounter can change the image I imagined. In my portraits of queer refugees and migrants, conversation and people's choices about their appearance became more important than the heroic roles I initially had in mind. In my self-portraits, I turn toward elements of myself I would rather not recognise. In the Evzones photographs, I look at individual presence within the physical discipline of ritual.

Clothing, makeup and objects can carry meaning, as can an unadorned face or body. Joy, desire, discomfort and vulnerability all have a place. I am interested in photographs that hold our attention long enough for an individual to become more than the category through which we first encounter them.