Towards the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, I put a call out asking for LGBTQIA+ people to submit their experiences of lockdown: their thoughts, their feelings, and the things they were doing to cope. Submissions ranged from people describing how they were using the alone time to explore their means of self-expression, to those who were struggling due to living with unsupportive families. 

It was evident that the loss of being able to socialise with queer chosen families and supportive allies was impacting many LGBTQIA+ people’s mental wellbeing, and reading through the submissions highlighted just how important it is for us LGBTQIA+ people to look out for one another. In response, my most recent works are portraits which were created during lockdown as morale boosters with the intent of helping members of our community feel celebrated, empowered and less alienated. As it stands, I have been isolated for 5+ months due to being high risk, so this project has been very liberating for myself and has been a means for me to feel better connected to my community.

I aim to carry on with this project and carry on making until I have enough imagery to form a zine/book – please feel free to contact me if you’d like to get involved!

Using portraiture to help uplift individuals is a running theme within my work. Past projects have focused on uplifting abuse survivors, whilst educating on red flags and confronting the societal norms which make abuse so prevalent. All work can be found on my Instagram.