Andi Avery

To Be Nurtured

Digital photograph

“‘To Be Nurtured’ is part of a series of self-portraits I did where I projected images of myself onto my own body. This specific photo depicts self-soothing in the absence of familial or community support.

I make content for and about queer people, sex workers, and the weirdos among us. Sometimes, that content comes in the form of narrative and documentary short films, and others, photographs. Sometimes digital, and sometimes with film. At times, these are realistic or representational, and at times, I continue to manipulate images through alternative processes like hand-drawn digital animation and emulsion transfer. I strive to tell multidimensional, character-driven stories across all mediums, providing a holistic view of folks of all flavors, honoring their experiences and my own.”

— Andi Avery

About the artist

Andi Avery

Andi Avery was born in New York, where they learned to give their unvarnished opinion on just about everything. After a promising childhood defined by an incorrigible book habit, and 4 years in an intensive acting and directing program, they dropped out of an all-girls private college after 8 months. Andi spent the next decade trying to assuage their guilt by obtaining as many odd certifications as possible as they tried to find their niche. The yoga teacher-cum-sommelier-cum-wildlife veterinary technician-cum-sex worker (sure, you can add a rim shot in there if you like)-cum-stuntperson finally pulled their shit together in 2015 when they wrote their first film script. Leaving Charlie was shot in 2016 by a crew of 40 women & non-binary individuals. The narrative short has made rounds on the festival circuit, landing Andi a modest handful of awards. Most importantly, it finally allowed them to utter the only statement that got a bigger eye-roll from Mom & Dad than their job as a stripper:
“…but what I really want to do, is be an artist.”

Andi’s narrative film credits include Leaving Charlie, and 80/20, both based on their experiences as a queer person and sex worker. Andi’s film work has been exhibited at Atlanta Film Festival, Nitehawk Cinema, and London International Film Festival, among others. Andi’s alternative process photography had its first public showing at the 2021 Queer | Art Summer Print Show.