About This Project

Jesse Egner

No Femmes. No Fats

When I started using gay dating apps as a teen, I came across this phrase frequently, defining my body as unwelcome. As a queer person with a non-normative body, the rejection from my gay peers set in motion a battle between my queerness and my body. This series began with self-portraiture, allowing me to explore queerness through elements such as absurdity, humor, and the uncanny. I then began photographing other queer people in a collaborative process. Collaboration became an integral part of my work, with me often appearing in the photograph with my subjects, where we play and explore together through the images we create. My photographs do not offer concrete narratives of identity, rather, they present fragmented narratives that exist in a space between reality and fantasy, reflecting the transitional space(s) of queerness. My process is spontaneous, playful, and collaborative, echoing the fluidity and dynamism of non-normative queer identities.

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