I am a queer interdisciplinary artist and educator working with performance, photography, and video. My practice is focused on research centering Latina/o/x and Chicana/o/x identity, memory, masculinity, and resistance. I use visual language as an extension of my voice. I speak to the lived experiences and histories of queer communities of color in the United States.
Photography is central to my practice. I use the camera to produce images inspired to distill symbolic ideas into physical material to challenge social constructs in American society. Working primarily with a 50mm or 80mm lens, I favor focal lengths that avoid distortion and reflect a perspective close to lived perception. My images are largely untouched, leaning into photography’s assumed truth while presenting situations that complicate how viewers read identity and social behavior. My body and imagery exists within urban, suburban, and natural landscapes emphasizing positionality and the presence of queer bodies within everyday space.
I create this work to protest traditional notions of masculinity and confront the rigid rules that shape my existence. These investigations often extend into performance and self-portraiture, where I physically inhabit memory and invite viewers into direct engagement. Using my body as a medium, I center embodied memories and my project, Boyhood, revisits lessons about gender and sexuality, creating a dialogue between past and present selves. I am deeply invested in family photographs and historical archives. With them, I seek to assert existence, honor resilience, and create space for narratives that have been overlooked, erased, or silenced.
Photography courtesy of my friend and colleague Alma Lucia