Nuclear — Artist Statement
Nuclear showcases distorted human form of femmes, queers and crossdressers from the American South (Louisiana and Texas) emphasizing the interrelation between the personal and the social in a monochromatic world where marginalised desires also inadvertently but crucially embody political gestures in the attempt to deconstruct a preconceived idea of a classical decadent nude.
Inspired by the surrealist worlds of Antoine D’Agata and Jacob Aue Sobol, where the raw, natural body is juxtaposed against abstract surroundings, my work takes body parts — that are so often misrepresented in media as solely objects of desire — and intentionally robs them of their sensuousness in order to challenge the tradition of the typical nude image created not for the sake of the model but for the beholder. In its place, I offer a nakedness that is devoid of any moral posturing, a simple matter of fact that allows subjects to feel safe and secure in their own skin. That is why I use obscuring environments, shadowed angles, and unclear shapes to confuse the viewer, robbing them of the usual markers that prompt them to equate nakedness with an instant sexual urge.
This series is about and for the liminal individuals. It has been taken on a cheap film camera as only the analog medium allows for complete anonymity of the image up until the point of development. Neither the model nor the photographer can anticipate the result, hence allowing for an unobstructed and genuine dialogue between them.
