Algae, including seaweed, produces over half the air we breathe on this planet. I find this comforting as my queer community faces attacks on our rights and on our spaces of gathering. One such spot, Riis Beach, a queer, trans and BIPOC beach in the Rockaways in New York City, is currently under threat, both from climate change and “development." Riis Beach is a place where queers come together to be in nature. I feel a kinship with the flora providing essential ecosystem services, like the seaweed that produces oxygen and the seaside goldenrod that mitigates coastal erosion. I liken this to the labor so many of us put towards social change. As I contend with these threats to space, I collect seaweed, seaside goldenrod and femme detritus left behind by beachgoers, like wig hair and false eyelashes. I also make materials from algae and eyeshadow. Working outdoors, I make sensor based photograms to capture these materials and the skylight above. These long exposures capture the choreography of my brightly colored fingernails as I manipulate the objects with my hands. The machine fails to understand my movements resulting in rainbow glitches. This glitch gets at the anxiety many of us are feeling and reminds me of the rainbowed spaces we create—spaces like Riis Beach that are often outside of the understanding of the machine.
This process is a return to comfort for me. I combine the digital photography skills I’ve spend the last decade honing, with the feeling of the darkroom where where I spent the first half of my career. It is nice to manipulate light with my hands again.
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