how strange others’ hands on the body that you love

2025–2026

This body of work navigates near loss, reverie, and the unexpected. Initially I set out to document the freedom and guilt experienced within the relationship with my partner, Richie—how we’ve butt against the standards of success and validity regarding what deems our partnership healthy, couth, or moral. Through experimentation with other men, nudism, and performing domestic rituals, I look at my partner as both a subject and collaborator.

Midway through this ongoing project, Richie experienced an unexpected near-death tragedy, one which I was present for every moment, and had even assisted in his resuscitation. The project was thrust into a state of re-examination as I questioned what it would mean to lose him and still focus on our life moving forward, an everpresent visual emblazoned into my mind of seeing queer men enter hospitals with their lovers and leave alone. However, this evolved into a documentation of recovery and a return to ‘normalcy’ as I’ve been present for this journey through the difficult, grotesque, and beautiful. My work examines survival, vulnerability, and the realities of queer caregiving—experiences that often remain invisible within public narratives. I treat photography not simply as a documentary tool, but as a means to construct images and objects that invite private, reflective encounters which position each image as a site of emotional and relational exchange.