We all stand at the head of an ever-expanding past, and share a visual history that informs the way we value ourselves and others today. I started this body of work quite simply because I literally felt there was a need for it.

By all my estimations, there seemed to be a void throughout history of imagery that addressed Queer identity in Gay men. Images of the young Adonis have dominated most notions of what a Gay man’s body should look like and created strict standards of masculinity and body ideals for quite some time.

For centuries portraiture, as a whole and especially portraiture of men, has been something relegated to the richest and most powerful. It is this visual history which I would like to position my work in relation to. With this work, I’m trying to achieve a similar type of authority those paintings and sculptures had by adopting similar gestures and structural formats typically found in portraits of sitters with great power. By doing so, I hope to reclaim an image of Queerness as an image of power.

I have chosen to photograph men the Bear community because they live as a marginalized group within a marginalized group, and their mere existence speaks to the issues of identity and representation I want this work to address.

My goal is to create images of men that portray them in a way they have not been traditionally seen. Most people have a preconception of what the "Ideal Gay male body" looks like. The Bear community was born out of the need to validate a body type that stood outside the popular ideas of what a Gay male's body SHOULD look like....the Gay male Adonis.

I make images that celebrate the bodies of these men in a way similar to that of the Greeks, with an emphasis on form, balance, beauty and perfection of the human figure.

In the end however, this work is art for the sake of making art. These images exist because I found something beautiful that I wanted to share with others. I can only hope that the viewer sees the same passion for the body in this work that would have been needed to carve out and sculpt a marble god. If even only some of this translates, I feel as if it is a step in the right direction.

As a work-in-progress, I present these images as a way to test which work and which do not. I would like to hear from anyone who is willing to give me their opinion on the images. I have been researching Queer oriented myth from Greek history, Native American folklore, and artists who have made work in similar genres as well as other visual references. If there are any artists/books/movies you think I should be looking at , let me know. Any feedback I could get on these images would be greatly appreciated.....

Qind presents these initial 6 images in the series and will be updated periodically. Watch this pace.