Portraits; but Make Them G A Y Y Y Y Y Y
I grew up with a super liberal family (I know, you’re terribly shocked) and nothing really offended my mom. Lucky for her, I didn’t run with it, but instead found myself in a position where I was offended I had nothing to rebel against. So I would create “controversial” scenarios in the hopes of rattling my very left leaning mother. The first time I told my mom I was a lesbian, she laughed and said, “I just don’t think that you are — but if that’s who you are, you know I’ll always love you!” Or something like that.
It was within this freedom that I was allowed to explore parts of myself without being riddled with shame. I was indeed (and still am) attracted to women, but I landed with the tag of bisexual instead of lesbian. I mean, after all, I am married to a man.
I’m also convinced that my late grandfather was either gay or had some bisexual tendencies and spent his whole life in denial of this part of himself — which is why I think he was so bitter and angry. I could be wrong. I’ll never know. But imagine living your whole life hiding in the shadows of the person you want to be. Imagine not having the freedom to honour the part of yourself that loves other humans so fiercely.
But! I don’t wanna tokenize all the gay members of my family — both blood and chosen — to showcase how I’m clearly queer friendly #AF, but instead just dedicate a certain percentage of my time celebrating the ever varied ways we as humans express our sexuality and relationships (whatever they look like), free from judgment. So, without further words, here is the gayest, most fun shoot I’ve done in a long time.
(If anyone is on the board of Pride Lethbridge or Pride Calgary, please inform them that I want to set up a booth similar to this when we can have parades again.)
Also in case you were wondering what “emotive portraits” look like, this is it. We’re avoiding creating photos that look like you’re sitting for an oil painting. Instead, we’re going for movement, fun, joy, blur, and all the in-betweens.
The camera stayed on a tripod for a lot of these - so that I could engage with this amazing model in a different way.
Thank you to my amazing model, make up artist and brand ambassador — Meagan — for offering to do this shoot with me. It was SO fun. If you want a themed portrait shoot, or even just a normal portrait shoot, get in touch!
