Statement
"Chameleon" explores queer glamor by capturing images of queer people modeling in the outfits that allow them to feel their most comfortable and proud, with agency given to them as to how their image is portrayed. This is done in the style of editorial commercial fashion photography, as this simulates the aesthetic narrative of confidence and beauty that a capitalistic society would often pursue but without queer voices and often in ways that lack personal narrative and only seek to consume and objectify. These images become an apparatus of democratizing luxury, free from the confines of economics. The opulence here comes from the sitters' radical confrontation of the lens. This approach is meant to subvert and destroy the semiotic implications this vibe often creates, which is exclusionist, reductive, and discriminatory, in favor of a vibe that cultivates safety and an opportunity to create a communal feeling of inner beauty in ways that allow people to be presented how they wish to be seen. I am influenced by the publications "Vogue," "DIS Magazine," and "Out," as well as the photographers Laurence Philomene, Lissa Rivera, and Rachel de Joode.
