Euphoria

I began working on this project with a self-portrait inspired by the work of Yannis Tsarouchis, a Greek painter and set designer whose often homoerotic art includes portraits of men with butterfly wings. In Euphoria (the feeling of well-being or joy, and the ability to resist suffering and adversity), I photograph LGBTQI+ individuals with butterfly wings that I make out cardboard, as a symbol of joy, liberation, and the pursuit of happiness against constant oppression.

In a binary, cisheteropatriarchal world, for many of us, joy—simply being who we are—is an act of resistance, a political act. Through these portraits, I aim to celebrate our beauty in all its diverse expressions, bodies, and identities, and the love, care, and community that sustain us.