*only select images shown
My photographic project "Signal" (2022-current) delves into the intersection of queerness, hope, non-mainstream spirituality, and performance. I capture images of divination rituals, contemporary esoteric objects, practitioners' environments, and the gestural body of individuals, including witches, energy workers, psychics, and believers in the United States and Mexico. This work reflects my broader quest for understanding and meaning-making within the realm of queer and femme spirituality. Through this project, collaborative image-making is a tool I employ for personally cultivating hope and imagining alternative futures.
"Signal" explores the intricacies of personal mythology, esoteric objects, and the embodied expressions of practitioners. Powerful, misunderstood, and non-normative LGBTQ+ and femme folks continue to confront scrutiny, erasure, and challenges to agency and bodily rights. Magical, ceremonial, and spiritual practices that engage in personal and collective hope directly push back against these oppressive social systems. Through collaboratively imaging often private, secret, and personal rituals within these practices, I position the gestural body as a site of resistance and a vessel for liberation.
I draw inspiration from the theoretical frameworks of scholars Sara Ahmed, Jack Halberstam, and Petra Kuppers to inform my research of embodiment, queerness, and phenomena. In particular, "Signal" reinforces Kuppers' exploration of the body as a site of knowledge, resistance, and transformation. Through analog and digital processes, I sustain a dynamic dialogue between historical spiritualist roots and contemporary imaging to create a visual narrative that both represents and transcends the ordinary.
