The Queer Flowers, 2022
‘The Queer Flowers’ offers space to queerness, without expectation; celebrating queer bodies and the lived experiences they represent; to exist openly, authentically and unapologetically queer.
With ‘The Queer Flowers,’ the photographer draws attention to the discrepancy between media visibility of queer bodies and political progress regarding queer emancipation.
Transferring natural dye from green carnations, pansies, violets and lavender — symbols of queerness throughout history — the photographer references a time when being openly queer risked being persecuted by the law; when wearing a flower was the only way of signalling one’s sexual orientation or gender identity to others.
With homophobic and transphobic hate crimes increasing year-by-year, how much has actually changed, when existing as a queer person often means risking abuse, injury or death?
These photographs are manifestations of queer existence despite all odds; outside of violent frameworks; on their own terms with joy and pride; rejecting normative ideals of beauty standards.
The flowers were pressed into uncoated photo paper, pre-soaked in a boiling alum mordant-solution. The chemical composition of the solution influences how much colour transfers into the paper as well as the hue.
The intervention is on display at the Neue Schule für Fotografie, in Berlin. Below is the series of photos without the flower-dyed intervention.
