I’ve always sort of geeked out about anything or anyone that ruptures gender norms… so that is something that I think will always be a part of my work no matter what I do. I also think that there is just something so magical and cool about the queer community, young and old.

I think that often comes from really thinking about ones identity and place in the world, and then fighting for it. I don’t think that’s totally unique to queer life, which is why I think that there is a universal quality to these images… but I do think that for the queer community that there are more risks that go along with that fight and a real bravery that goes along with being visible about it. That’s why I think that creating these images is so interesting to me… and so important.

It really started by shooting friends, then friends of friends…but now the internet has become my main method of seeking people out. A lot of times it’s just from broad searches like “Queer Detroit,” “Queer Ohio,” that leads me to people. Other times I find people through social networks like Myspace.

I think that meeting people like this is an interesting (to me anyway) part of my project because I have heard from some of the older folks I’ve photographed that the internet is filling the shoes of the gay bar of years past… a place where you can seek-out like minded people and not feel so alone in the world. That’s what I tell myself anyway to not feel like such a stalker. Haha.

Sometimes the photos have an almost-candid feel, but they’re also clearly composed. How long do you spend preparing each shot, and how many different shots do you generally take for each subject?

I shoot about 6 sheet of film for each subject and it takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours… but normally I spend about 20 minutes just talking with the subjects and then we shoot for about an hour. It’s always a really natural progression of poses and people are always so open to push the boundaries a little bit, which is something I’ve learned as I’ve gone along. I was much more shy in the beginning.

I think the most important thing is reading body language to make sure that the subject is feeling strong about how they’re representing themselves. If they’re not comfortable it’s really clear and I don’t shoot till its feels right.

Do you try to use available lighting, or do you mainly shoot with a lighting set-up and a camera assistant?

I use available light most of the time and sometimes I bounce a flash when it’s really dark. I’m trying to get better about using a flash because so often I have people scrambling around their houses bringing in more lamps! It’s kind of a nice icebreaker. I always shoot solo but sometimes I recruit for assistants along the way. Twice now I’ve had someone’s 10 year old cousin or camera shy girlfriend holding an umbrella over me while I shoot.

I shoot digital for other things and I love it… like for my collaborative work, but for this project I like the slowness of large format. I also think that it puts people at ease to work with a format that they’re unfamiliar with and as a result they have less inclination to put on their “camera face”.

“Embodiment” reads like an anthropological study of today’s queer youth. What have you discovered about over the course of the project that surprised you, or conversely, re-affirmed your ideas about what it means to be young and queer today?

What surprised me is the discrimination (or rather criticism) I sometimes see within the queer community, and it often involves “not being queer enough” or “being too queer”. Even though there is a reoccurring theme of people feeling very close to this term “Queer,” as well as the community as a whole… it still sometimes feels like I’ve placed myself in the middle of a huge high school with 100 different cliques.

I’ve noticed that race and age really play an important role as well when it comes to how people define them selves and how they feel defined by others. Right now I’m trying to expand my project, making the scope of age and geographic location much more broad so I can look closer at this dynamic and gather a broader diversity of stories and images. Oh yeah… I’ve started having subjects write statements about who they are, etc. They’ll be on the website soon!