Marcus Rey
I am very moved by the people around me, so my focus is typically on portraiture. Lockets are a very personal piece of jewelry, and to me, the art of photography is also devotional in similar ways. You can choose to remain concealed, but what resides if you open your heart? Even then, do you show it to other people, or keep it to yourself? These themes of closeness, vulnerability, and ritual, are what I strive to carry over visually when it comes to the unspoken intimacies of capturing a subject. I primarily work with Queer and BIPOC within the Dallas community. Oak Cliff is forever changing as well, so I enjoy using the areas where I’ve grown up as the backdrop for these stories. It is invigorating to be among such a diverse and lively community here, and being Queer in the South is also a very unique experience on its own, so as an artist it is always my goal to honor these facets of life well.
When it comes to my creative process, I love to include many art forms in my practice. While the camera remains the eye, indulging the other senses are also vital to me. Clothes and fabrics for the feeling… music to set the tone… and even fragrance to ignite old memories and create new ones. While these aspects may be considered performance, I believe they actually intertwine to allow a certain level of freedom and openness to expression for your subject. I dissect the art of photography in the way that I embrace Queerness in real life. When you’re open to playing with the changes and letting go of traditional expectations, you truly are able to form these moments that can only be captured once, and that is why I constantly find myself enamored by this medium and choose it everyday. I believe my work mirrors these sentiments and is not only a reflection of myself and those around me, but what the world can look like when we come together to expound on these foundational feelings of the human experience.