The Queering of Photography: a solo exhibition and public engagement programme

The Queering of Photography (2015–2025), an ambitious long-term project, investigates the complex relationship between queer identity and photographic representation. Developed in collaboration with the LGBTQ+ community and at artist residencies at the British School at Rome, The Queering of Photography presents a meticulous study of pose, gaze, and composition. This body of work is presented as a critical investigation into what queer photography is and can be. Experimental approaches to making and presentation includes approaching photography from the perspective of sculpture, video, and prose poetry together with collaborative artistic performance.

Rooted in the conventions of classical studio portraiture and produced with a large format plate camera, the works in this exhibition comprises formal yet playfully subversive photographic works of human figures, Roman statues, and studio props. Through rigour and playfulness, the work cultivates a distinctly queer sensibility within the artistic process – one that challenges and reimagines how identity and desire are represented. The project’s title underscores this strategy: a process of “queering” that reclaims playfulness as a critical mode of inquiry, foregrounding overlooked queer gestures and aesthetics within photographic traditions and histories.

The public engagement programme is anchored in this exhibition and comprises of several public events, including portrait workshops with polaroids, a symposium (What is a Queer Methodology?) and a Pride event (in-conversation with museum curator on the histories of LGBTQ+ photography).