collaboration with Jamil Hellu
9 minute video
Inspired by the ambiguous yet intimate portraits of anonymous men pictured together in the history of early photography, Subjects Unknown considers the place of male portraiture within rigid conventions about social acceptance and inclusion. As much as the title acts as a veil of denial, the work attempts to question the precedent of homosexual negation within both historic and contemporary dialogues about family and social identity. Images of the collaborators are contextualized within 70's educational films about bullying and families throughout the world.
Subjects Unknown was part of the exhibition Co-Existing and Co-Llaborating, a curation by Mary Magsamen at SPACES Gallery in Cleveland, OH. It has also screened in San Francisco, CA & Houston, TX.
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In tandem to the video, a series of large format portraits were taken at the sites videotaped, which were in Paris, the South of France, and Rome.
