Construction of the Savage is an ongoing journey dissecting what it means to be masculine in communities of color through the lens of trans masculinity. I began by researching how images of black and brown masculinity are constructed. I examined how brown & black masculine bodies are seen as aggressors. This multi-phase work confronts the historical flattening, objectification, and weaponization of black and brown masculine subjectivity. This body of work has come to be because of a brown masculine body behind the camera and in front of it, blurring the boundaries of subject and object.
In the first phase of this project, I begin with the body and the self. Here, I explore my own masculinity in the domestic space. I have photographed myself and the spaces I inhabit, focusing on interactions with space as indications of gender. With this body of work, I want to highlight the multiplicity of layers and textures, the decentering of the singular self, and an ongoing questioning of the ocularityof gender.
The following are selected pieces from the ongoing body of work.