Annie Tritt

Pansexual Pride Day was this week, and so I wanted to feature a pansexual photographer on Stargazer. As I surfed the web, I bumped into Annie Tritt, a photographer based in the US.

Their commercial work is fantastic, featuring Hollywood stars as well as everyday people and families. What caught my eye was their trans project, “Transcending Self.”

Transcending Self, I am photographing transgender and gender expansive youth ages 2-20 and sharing their stories.

This may be the first time I’ve seen a project focus on children. I’ve seen many on teens due to the nature of transition and puberty blockers, but not so much on primary school-aged children. It’s important because, as Annie says, “a transgender person is murdered every 29 hours.” If you want to know what it is like to live with that fear, you only have to watch this child say out loud that they fear being murdered while their parent cries behind them. Projects like Annie’s are important.

The project can be seen on Instagram and Annie’s portfolio. Both feature stories from participants. If you’d like to know more, they’re included in a series of interviews with Everyday Projects.

Ellie Sedwick

Another pansexual photographer I found was Ellie Sedwick, aka The Vulva Photographer.

Her work celebrates diversity in vulvas, breasts, nipples, bodies as a whole and also dicks. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a project about vulvas, but it is the first time I’ve seen one that is this raw. There are photos featuring people on their periods, herpes, tampons dangling, discharge, and haemorrhoids. As someone who has had stretch marks since their teens, I appreciated seeing that gallery. It took me a very long time to be OK with them, and they should be accepted as normal.

LINKS

• Who Tells the Stories of Our Trans Elders?. For their first book, Melbourne-based photographer Marlo W met, photographed and interviewed 18 trans and gender diverse elders living in Melbourne.
• A Glimpse into the Life of a Black Trans Advocate. Earlier this summer, the documentary photographer Leon Cato watched as his city, New York, came together for a historic moment.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Hello out there. I’ve been disabled all my life, but I only found with an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis at 40. After 6 years, I’m still coming to terms with that, forgetting that I am disabled and working out how to build a sustainable future for myself. At least there’s a day for us, so I’m having a doughnut and looking at the work of other disabled photographers. 

Justin Cooper

Justin is a Black and disabled photographer from Chicago. In 2021, his photography project ‘Through the lens’ documented the city from the perspective of his wheelchair. Sadly Justin died in July 2024.

As a Black wheelchair user, I employ my photography as an evidentiary tool that addresses issues of access during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this continuing and growing project is to bring attention to the ways disability is defined by societal, environmental, social, and physical barriers that restrict leisure and quality of life for people with mobility impairments. 

Isobel Greenhalgh

Isobel (they/she) is a Queer, Autistic photographer from Manchester with ADHD specialising in portraits, events and commercial work. I love their work. Bold, colourful, and fun, and their whole website shows their passion for creating inclusive content. They love purple, too. 

Shannon Collins

Another Queer, Autistic photographer with ADHD is Shannon (they/them) from Philadelphia. Specialising in weddings and portraits, their portfolio is wonderfully diverse, vibrant, loving, warm, and life-affirming. Do take a look.

Shona Louise

Shona is a theatre, live events and portrait photographer from London. 

As a disabled woman she is also passionate about improving representation of disabled people across theatre and the media, as well as helping to empower disabled people through photography.

Shona works from a wheelchair, and her photography is as good as anyone I know in the events scene. 

Adriano Kalin

Adriano (he/him), from Chicago, lives with a traumatic brain injury and chronic back pain. On his Instagram he sum’s up why it is important to commission disabled photographers and buy prints/zines from them.

i try to use using my lens to capture the resilience and humanity of marginalized communities. My art isn’t just my passion—it’s my livelihood. As someone who never knows when a flare-up might stop me from working, creating and selling my prints allows me to support myself in a way that works with my health.

Every print I create tells a story you won’t find in big box stores—stories of real people, real struggles, and real hope. When you choose to support artists like me, you’re not just decorating your home; you’re investing in something meaningful.

Lastly there’s a half hour chat with pet and wildlife photographer Jen Read that discusses disability and working as a photographer. Worth a listen to.

I’ve enjoyed browsing these people’s work. I can’t pretend to know what life is like for these photographers, but I do know what it is like for me. I need support, and the world just isn’t fully there for us. Maybe one day. Until then, keep sharing/supporting disabled photographers.

Autism, photography and communication

In a 2021 study, Uschi Klein explores how autistic people may use photography to connect with the world and communicate. If cameras are ubiquitous, and everyone is photographing every mundane facet of their lives, how are autistic people using photography? Are they, we, doing belfies (bum selfies), photographing every meal, or positioning expensive cameras next to artisinal coffees? Uschi Klein sought to explore this as photography is a form of non-verbal communication. In doing so, they challenge the stereotype of the socially withdrawn “shy” autistic person hiding away inside of their gadgets—a stereotype I challenged in my 2011 project, Rezz.

Sinclair offers a useful analogy here:

It takes more work to communicate with someone whose native language isn't the same as yours. And autism goes deeper than language and culture; autistic people are "foreigners" in any society. - (Sinclair 1993, 2)

Sinclair's analogy between communication and language begs the question of how autistic people make sense of the world and communicate with others.

For participant Joe, for example, the camera phone was an alternative way of communicating with others, which he confirmed by saying,

No, it's my camera and my only means of communication, well, besides talking to a person besides me. I mean communication from way-off [Joe refers to using the camera as a way of communicating from a distance rather than face-to-face.]

Joe expressed a sense of ownership over his ability to communicate with others via his phone.

The study features four male autistic people who enjoy photography. Klein mentioned that gender isn’t a factor in this study. One of the participants photographed the sky, leading the researcher to believe that “he enjoys being immersed in the elements, at least to some extent.”

Ingold argues that seeing the sky is an experience of being-in-the-world. This multi-sensory experience is, of course, widely shared amongst all people, but considering autistic people experience sensory overload, looking at the sky (and photographing it) might be a strategy to focus on one sense and compensate for sensory overload (Grandin 2006; Williams 2006).

This is something else I have observed in my post-Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis. My camera can be a stim toy with its buttons and screen that reduces the world down to something I can manage. Nature is also a safe space for me, maybe the safe space, and I’ve been working on a series of photos on this theme in recent years. Seeing an actual person of science look into similar ideas is fascinating.

Reading this study makes me question my own work. Have I unknowingly been working this way too? It seems that it’s a common way for autistic photographers to work.

As a social practice, photography provided a context in which the autistic adults could explore their sociality in their own ways. As Ochs and Solomon explain, '[a]utistic sociality is not an oxymoron but rather a systematically observable and widespread phenomenon in everyday life' (Ochs and Solomon 2010, 69). Exploring the social contexts in which the four autistic male adults took photographs provides a more detailed picture of who creates photographs, where, why, how often and for whom. This approach underlines that everyday photography can extend the opportunities for visual communication and practicing sociality.

Breadth

Breadth is a project by photographer Alex Heron that looks at breaking down the stereotypes surrounding Autistic people.

Being autistic myself, I am so fiercely passionate about this subject, and have long felt that the static perception of what it means to be autistic is often damaging to autistic people. It seems that in the mainstream media, autism is portrayed as extreme stereotypes, which has shaped a global perception of what autism looks like, but actually, autism manifests in an infinite number of ways.

This project is beautiful. The photography captures people in a very natural way showing a diverse range of people and how they deal with being autistic. It is important work. Recently told someone I was autistic and they said "Oh you must be a savant. What's your specialty?" No... just, no. We aren't Rain Man or The Good Doctor. As the saying goes; "If you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person." Alex's project is highlighting that through warm, intimate, approachable portraits.

Trans Day of Remembrance

On 20th Nov, it was the Trans Day of Remembrance (TDOR). In preparing for this week’s post, I looked for interesting stories relating to this day. I struggled. In March, there is TDOV, Trans Day of Visibility, and a whole host of photo essays surrounding that date. Remembrance is harder to photograph, though. It’s harder to take the photos we wished we could have taken, the ones we knew we should have, but there was always tomorrow, so it slipped our mind.

In my years as a photographer, I’ve photographed four funerals. My parents, my uncle and my father-in-law. These devastating events forced people together, so I photographed them. There was sadness, joy, human connection and a strong reminder not to wait because there may not be a tomorrow. Of course, in that moment, I am aware of that fact and a month later, as the chaos of life engulfs me, I will have slipped back into believing that we have infinite time. I will forget to photograph. It won’t be as urgent.

It is urgent, though. More people were on this year’s TDOR list than last. So, while I tried and failed to find many interesting TDOR-related photo essays, there were ones about being trans, and they are important to remember.

This work by Mark Seliger is strong. It's down to earth and simply shot with one light on the streets of New York. /via PopPhoto

This series by Jackie Dives reminds me that a good photo simply needs a camera. Don't over think. Just photograph. The gear is miles away from the Hassleblad used by Mark Seliger in his street portraits, but again is down to earth and relatable.

If you'd like to see more, there's a great article on Feature Shoot about "Celebrating Transgender History Through Photography" that I recommend.

My Perspective

For the past 14 years the Down's Syndrome Association has been running a global photography competition for people with Down's Syndrome. The project aims to highlight their lives through the medium of photography. This year's winners and shortlisted entries are out, and they look good. It's a great reminder of how photography can be for all, and can offer us a connection to someone we've never met.

Here are a few that caught my attention.

Links

• RPS Statement on AI in photography.
• 'Through a different lens': my experience as a disabled photographer working with Transport for All.

Queer photography during the Trump administration

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Duck. If we’re playing a familiar tune, what did we do last time? Where was the queerness in protest of Trump in 2017? What does it say about then and now? I photographed a protest in 2017, and here’s what others were doing.

Photography by Elizabeth Raley Osterburger and Drew Pond for a November 2016 article in Huck Magazine;

“Me as an African American out here, and a queen at that? It’s hard. I can’t let shit like this stop me. Life’s too short. Family is hard. I still stay with my people, they’ve got accustomed to me, but it’s hard. Hopefully things don’t change too much for the worse. You can let it stress you, consumer your life. We worry about the next day, the next person, live for ourselves and live for right now.” - JayBella Banks

From Tom Bianchi’s work on queer joy and defiance on Fire Island, NYC.

“We’ve created a world that’s more filled with love, where people are valued on multiple levels and not simply categorized by skin color, and—I’m absolutely happy to say this—it’s better than yours.” - Tom Bianchi

In January 2017, photographer Ron Amato set out to produce a response to Trump. A full interview is available on his site.

“At the core of our humanity is sexuality. To deny sexuality as an important influence in how we build our lives is to deny who we are as living, thriving human beings. Sexual attraction and its fulfilment is key to living a healthy, productive life. The men in these photographs are depicted as having an impediment to that fulfilment, denying them the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” – Ron Amato

Ken Castaneda questioned what it meant to be queer and Latinx with interesting photographs of home.

“As a Queer Latinx, not only do you have to explain your sexuality but you have to explain that you are American by birth–[that] your identity is ultimately not one solid thing. We have to be visible and proactive. The role of the activist and the artist is even more important now that it has ever been.” - Ken Castaneda

Magnus Hasting, whose work was recently on display at the Walker Art Gallery here in Liverpool, has photographed a diverse range of drag queens.

The whole world was getting depressing, right-wing everywhere, Trump taking trans and LGBTQ+ rights away from us, so I thought I want to stand up and show you can be out and proud. 

I’m trying to keep my anxiety in check and focus on what I can do to help the communities I’m part of. Stay safe and look after your mental health. If you’re trans and struggling, there’s a lifeline you can call in the US. 877–565–8860. 

Queer as AI folk

AI is everywhere. The latest smartphone advert pushes the power of AI. Seemingly all of Adobe’s products have AI features. Apple has added AI in their latest OS updates despite having had ML (Machine Learning) for years. ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft CoPilot all aim to solve life’s great problems. Is it buzzwordy fluff like web3.0, NFT or 3DTV, or does it have utility?

Even if it has utility, AI’s origins are ethically worrying. A good number of datasets that the AI models are trained on use non-consensual source material. Apple may have scraped the open web to train their model. Other services, like Perplexity, completely ignore techniques used to block them from your site. There are people fighting back against these companies, but I fear that by the time there’s a court result the tools will be so baked into our lives that we cannot undo it.

Ignoring the ethical aspect still leaves the climate issue. A ChatGPT request, now part of iOS 18.2, uses 10x the power of a Google search. In a race to profit from these systems people are burning the planet.

It’s unfortunate as they do have utility. It is far easier to clean up a photograph using AI than not and I use it nearly every day. I could restrict myself to using only AI that runs on my computer rather than a data centre that burns the planet, but it still raises the question of how was the model trained. By using the tools am I complicit in the non-consensual content crawling? As a queer photographer, and as a queer person, consent is important... until utility is more important?

I’ve wrestled with the issue for the past week and I am not sure where I land on it. I have disabled ChatGPT on my devices for climate reasons and I’m trying to avoid using Lightroom’s generative fill for cleaning up client photos. Interestingly it resolved itself when I tried to edit some body-positive photos. Lightroom said the work was against the community guidelines and wouldn’t the mask on the person. So, the quickest way to avoid AI... nudity.

Here are some other thoughts on the issue of queerness and AI in photography;

Jake Elwes - The Zizi Show. The Zizi Show is a deepfake drag cabaret that explores the ethical problems which exist in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

How AI Erases Queer Content | Autostraddle. "In an uncanny way that only AI can achieve, this expressed rationale mirrors a common feeling held by cis folks when interacting with trans people: the paralyzing dread of saying the wrong thing."

Queer In AI: A Case Study in Community-Led Participatory AI | Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency.

Is A.I. Coming for the Drag Queens Next? A Deep Fake Cabaret at the V&A Exposes the Tech’s Limitations. A new A.I. drag show at the V&A museum in London queers the dataset and reveals the many biases of machine learning.

Beyond the Binary--Queering AI for an Inclusive Future | ACM Interactions.

Photographer

I bumped into this work by Steven Menendez this week and liked it. So often work like this is a product of the male gaze featuring women bending over rocks in black and white. Refreshing to see men instead. I wonder if there's someone doing this with everyday body types too, rather than six-pack Greek gods?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Steven Menendez (@steven_menendez_official)

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So, what is it? This is a photography newsletter hopefully with a difference. As someone who identifies as a non-binary AuDHD (Autistic ADHD) disabled photographer I’m passionate about seeing work by people like me. My aim with Stargazer is to promote the work of neurodivergent, LGBTQ+, disabled photographers. The girls/gays/theys and others who make photos using whatever device that brings them joy. Basically a queer FlakPhoto.

Some weeks I may write about an exhibition, book or project I saw and what it meant to me as someone in that community. Other times maybe my own ideas about photography or the tools and technology. I have ideas and I like to write, so here we are. My own photography will be making an appearance because daddy needs to sell prints.

Why Stargazer? I want to see work from people who stand in front of the universe and say “Hello. This is me.” I want to see work that is bigger than the person making it, unapologetic by photographers unafraid to be themselves and makes me look up. That sort of work inspires me to be me, to be bold and be brave.

Here’s the thing though. This isn’t a Substack. This is a Ghost powered newsletter that I’m running on a server I pay for. It’s all alone out there with no social features. No resharing, quote posting, or re-tooting. If you like this or know someone who maybe interested, please send them this way. It’s freely available with a supporter plan if you’d like to help make this work.

For now, here is something I wrote on my other newsletter, Hello Computer, about a queer exhibition I saw during Eurovision.

Stay Queer. No matter war.

In 2023 Liverpool hosted Eurovision to elevate the voices of the Ukraine. As part of the cultural strand of the event there was a photography exhibition called ‘Stay Queer. No matter war’ presented by UKRAINEPRIDE X Homotopia inside a Lush store.

“Sometimes, being queer is not about colours. Being queer is about freedom.”

I attended the launch of this exhibition in my non-binary finery with punk styled Ukrainian flag colour tights and fishnets on. The walk there, on a beautiful sunny spring evening, was nerve wracking. Outside a Pride event, I think I’ve only seen someone like me walking around once, maybe twice. I do not see myself in the world, and visibility is important. Speaking to a member of First Take at the event, she reminded me of the phrase “You can’t be what you can’t see.” While I rarely see myself in the world, I hope my visibility helps others see themselves in me.

That said, I saw myself in this photography exhibition. The anxiety, complexity, stress, and joy of being queer. I’ve felt those feelings. That fear of being accepted. Not even asking for it because it should be a given. I feel that daily. These stories from nearly 1,500 miles (ca. 2,414 km) away are not just something happening in a foreign country. They’re universal. These are simply people living from day to day, fighting for their rights to be who they are and love who they love.

They’re doing this with a war going on. A war destroying cities. People often talk about erasing voices. This is it. This is the ultimate version of that. A man with power violently telling a group of people who identify one way that they are wrong. That they should conform to his beliefs on what the world should be. The war risks, seriously risks the erasure of queer voices in Ukraine. How many people will grow up there in a post-war environment, not seeing themselves on the street? That opportunity for queer joy will be lost for a generation at least.

Adding a layer to this erasure of culture and identity were comments by the queer people involved about whether they were born Ukrainian or came to identify as Ukrainian. What is identity? It is who a people say they are and when they do you listen. You don’t use your voice to say otherwise.

The exhibition featured work by a local photographer and a trans model that brought the war on identity home with their project ’Here n Queer’. They were attacked on the streets of Liverpool for being themselves. The Ukrainian queer people in the exhibition face that same fear on the street from bigotry and, and an invading army. The defiant message, “Stay queer. No matter war.” is present in an exhibition where there are photos from of queer people dancing in a daytime club as curfew is too early to party at night. The response to the Liverpool person being attacked was to revisit the scene the next day and make a series of photos in defiance of their attackers.

“Ukrainians keep on dancing and kissing, despite all the unbearable pain in souls, which is so relentless. They continue to shout to the world how strong, brave, free, and independent they are. And they will not be stopped.”

It was a powerful exhibition, crossing the complexity of a language and cultural barrier through the accessible medium of photography.

Outer Space

Recently there was quite the aurora borealis. While the event was amazing to see, browsing social media afterwards was annoying. Post after post of man with cam. This was a world wide event. Where were the non-men with cams? I tried to find as many as I could. I’d love to see your work if you were out there. Contact me on Instagram.

Chris Wicklund (@chriswicklund_auroras) on Threads

Comet Atlas + my boyfriend of 3 months. 💘

Threads

Leah Hennessey | UK (@ljhcaptures) on Threads

Aurora over Slater’s Bridge 💫 Sorry to everyone who is sick of seeing Aurora recently 😂 a crazy evening last week watching the Aurora in the Lakes, it really doesn’t matter how many times I see it, I will always get stupidly excited by it 😂🤩 Shot on @sonyalpha A7RIII and tamron_uk 17-28mm sony.unitedkingdom @sonyalphafemale

Threads

Ciara Farrell (@ciaraelainephotos) on Threads

Just one more #northernlights photos. #auroraborealis #dublinphotography #rushharbour #sonyalpha

Threads

Kat Lawman 🌌 (@adventure.nightscapes) on Threads

This was taken early on in the night as soon as it was dark... the aurora was displaying some beautiful pastel tones. I just couldn’t seem to get enough of the sky into a single shot even at 14mm, so decided to do a 5 frame vertical panorama...which has taken me the best part of 3 hours to process... but was work it for the extra sky 😍🫶🎆🩷💚 📍 Llyn Y Gader- Snowdonia- mountain on the left is Snowdon

Threads

dianemuldowney (@dianemuldowneystudios) on Threads

The fabulous Ribblehead Viaduct with the Aurora Borealis dancing over Whernside 🖤 just short of a Steam Engine! 😁😊

Threads

Erin ∙ NYC Photographer ∙ Travel Content Creator (@niredonahue) on Threads

Timelapse of the Northern Lights over the Manhattan skyline. Being in NYC, I didn’t think much of seeing them since it’s too light polluted. I missed the first & brighter substorm at 7:30pm. With a moments notice, I dropped everything I was doing and haphazardly threw my camera gear into my bag and dashed out of of the house. After two hours of waiting in the windy cold, I packed up my gear ready to head home only to see with my naked eyes some hazy pink clouds re-appear in the sky…

Threads

End Transmission

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this and I'll see you next time. - Pete