Lite Brite

“'No Femmes. No Fats.’ When I started making profiles on gay dating/hookup apps as a teenager, this is a phrase I came across frequently, defining me and my body as unwelcome. As a queer person with a non-normative body and an invisible disability, the constant rejection from gay communities set in motion a battle between my queerness and the body I inhabit. This series, titled ‘Unaffixed,’ began with self-portraiture—an action that felt aggressive towards myself due to my aversion to it as a practice, perhaps through years of conditioning to despise my appearance. However, it allowed me to begin a visual exploration into non-normative queerness through the utilization of elements such as absurdity, humor, and the uncanny."

— Jesse Egner