FRAMING OUR PRESENCE
Kicking off in Portland in spring 2025 with a gallery exhibition event and artist panel, Framing Our Presence is a curated collection showcasing the work of queer photographers across the country. Curated and produced by Esther Godoy, the exhibition foregrounds the political and poetic act of being seen—on our own terms. Through photographic narrative and portraiture, the featured works explore queer identity beyond mainstream representation, resisting commodification and embracing complexity.
With a focus on embodiment, place, and self-authored storytelling, Framing Our Presence invites audiences into a shared space of witnessing and reflection. It is both a celebration and a reclamation—a gathering that honors the power of queer visibility as something felt, held, and framed by those who live it. In rejecting the algorithmic and commercial pressures placed on queer expression, this exhibition insists on authenticity, depth, and the right to be seen beyond the confines of the screen.
By positioning photography as both art and archive, the exhibition underscores the vital role of visual and documentary practices in preserving and articulating queer histories. At the same time, it challenges today’s fast-paced consumption of queer creativity, asserting these photographers as artists and cultural documentarians—not simply ‘content creators’.
The core collection features the work of A. Klass (Transnormativity), Amina Cruz, EPLI, Esther Godoy, and Liam Woods (AnalogPapi) —a group of nationally recognized queer artists whose photographuc work offers a collective portrait of contemporary queer experience across the United States.
As the exhibition travels, local artists from each host city will be invited to contribute work, adding a dynamic, site-responsive layer that grounds the core collection in the lived realities of local queer communities. The debut showing in Portland, OR, will feature additional work from Jo Cosme, Mason Rose, and Wondra. With Ruby J White hosting the artists panel discussion.
Kicking off in this spring in Portland OR, on Friday, April 25th
in collaboration with Portland 5 Center Of The Arts
**Interested in hosting the exhibition? Let’s make it happen