First, It’s not everyday one is awarded something…
Secondly, it’s even more a surprise receiving it when one is not expecting to win. I truly didn’t as I was sure someone had done something more worthy of it than I had over the past year.
See below what I was awarded.
I love being part of SDEBA and I love being able to photograph members of the LGBTQ community.
I have and have always had many friends in this community and I feel I owe much to these people in my life and to be honored by them is more precious to me than any other imagery-based award I could receive.
So let me get to why I won this…
and let’s get this fact out of the way: I am a straight white guy and I don’t know adversity and discrimination… not really. I have been told to “go back to my country a few times” but barely anything about me is legislated, prohibited, or even frowned upon. I feel lucky to be who I am and to be accepted by others without caveats and I think it is on me to help where ever I can.
Being accepted for who one is by their peers or by the government isn’t always a guaranteed thing (e.g. what is happening in Texas right now).
But being gay or trans or having substance abuse issues does not remove you from your community as much as some would like. One of my dearest friends died of substance abuse after having difficulty for many years in his childhood reconciling his sexual orientation and the pressures of society. He never got the chance to kick the habit before he contracted AIDS from needle use.
This is why I was very privileged to work with Stepping Stone and Avenir Thinking this past year on the new Living Out Loud campaign (click on the title, I highly recommend it). I was able to pay homage to my friend Michael and to show my love for this community.
Here’s an example of some of the images I took for this project.
