Pride Week 2019
It's hard to really say where or when this idea first came about. Me and Amanda talk about photo shoots so much and try to use any opportunity to put together a look and do a shoot. We normally get the same couple of friends to model but this time we wanted to be very conscious about who we chose as models and make sure that it was representing the LGBTQ community. This photo shoot was a little different then previous shoots I've done. While it does include products I've made, it was more about the individual person than anything else. We wanted their personality to shine through and their voice to be heard. We gave each model the option to write a caption to go along with the photo as this was all about their journey and what pride means to each one of them.
I hope you love this project as much as I do!
RED: TITI BABY, @its.titibaby
I am a non-binary queer artist. for me, Pride is about empowerment.
to develop my own power, I must give myself permission:
• permission to express, to emote on my terms and into my own truth.
• permission to set goals that inspire me and permission to experience feelings of failure when efforts manifest different outcomes than I anticipated.
• permission to say no. permission to identify what I need — from friends, neighbors, authority — and ask for it, without justification or self-sacrifice.
• permission to crave safety.
• permission to evolve.
Pride continues to live because of the many queer ancestors who gave themselves permission to exist as well as gave themselves permission to resist those who wished to reject equal human rights and LGBTQIA+ existence.
consider for a moment how much power is required to justify one’s own identity, one’s own joy. then consider what *you* can do if you give yourself the permission to feel your power and channel it into action.
ORANGE: Kelsey Campion, @fringe.and.company
What does pride mean to me? Pride means being unapologetically bold in what I do, how I love, and who I am. It means being brave in spite of fear, loving in spite of hurt, and choosing to be open in spite of a world that sometimes tells us to stay small. Pride is living my truth, trusting my truth, and sharing my truth
YELLOW: Lex Caron, @greatlexpectations
Yellow is a color I've long associated with joy. Yellow is the sun. Yellow her vibrant reflection off my skin and her radiance that beams from my eyes. Yellow is everywhere around us, in nature and on decaying facades of blighted homes, yet many of us don't see yellow until we look for it. Finally, as a queer person in my twenties, I can say that I'm done hiding from what is there in abundance, what has always been there, and always been. I will never tone it down because I am told that it is "too much" or that I am "doing the most." Would we ever dare tell the sun to shine less bright? My joy is my power. My joy is infectious. My joy is healing. And it is all YELLOW
GREEN: Sydney Blanchard, @dyketowatchoutfor
Happy Pride to everyone except people who ask me how to women have sex with each other. And cops. Fuck cops.
BLUE: My Blue Heaven
Recently returning from our "Mecca" San Francisco, Miz Blue Heaven girds herself and ignores the red state southern attitudes that can drag a drag queen down.
Dripping in lapis blue from head to toe, she's learned to feast on Blue Oak BBQ, Blue Crab Cakes at the Lake, Blue Dot Donuts on Canal St and sets up her smorgasbord in the Blue Room at the Roosevelt Hotel (where she worked 40 years ago)
Riding side saddle on her Blue Bike, she swings by Blue Plate Foods where her funny, awesome and loving father once worked.
Silent no more, and never going backwards, she is at last proud of who she is, living at home in New Orleans, creating a world where everyone is welcomed, supported and loved.
Sharing her color with pride, and sending love to everyone else in this rainbow! We are Cyndi Lauper's True Colors shining Through!
Love wins!
VIOLET: Dylan, @dylan01.photos
As someone part of the queer community, I don't always see representation in the media, or the public eye in general. And it will probably be a long time before we see enough representation but that's why we have to represent ourselves. We can represent our community right now for the younger people (or anyone) who are scared to be themselves. Never be normal. Always question tradition.
