STATES OF UNION is a series of color portrait photographs of same-sex couples/families. The photographs are loosely based on classical paintings through gesture, color, lighting. By drawing upon classical images, the tropes used to promote heterosexual family units can be re-appropriated in order to serve a more expanded view of family. In so doing, the viewer may recognize something familiar about the image and may feel a kinship with families who might otherwise look and feel unrecognizable. The more the world is permeated with images of same-sex couples/families, the harder it will be for same-sex relationships to be considered “other.”
