Zac Thompson on Immortalizing the Trans and Queer Faces of Brooklyn Through Film Photography

Art is inherently personal. When you view someone's work it is somehow a reflection of the reality in which they live. For Zac Thompson, growing up in a conservative household was difficult, but through the medium of photography they found their voice and continue to showcase the magic of their community in Brooklyn. Using the fleeting and spontaneous quality of disposable cameras, they immortalize trans and queer faces, with each photo showcasing a thriving community. As we celebrate this Transgender Day Of Remembrance, Zac tells us more about their story as a photographer, and the importance of capturing the LGBTQIA+ community for the future.

Greetings Zac! Can you tell us about your journey with film photography? What first attracted you to this medium, and how would you describe your photography style?

This feels like a full circle moment for me because I started shooting film when I was 16 (now 32) and was a huge Lomo head. The Holga was my go-to camera back then, and I was obsessed with double exposures, cross-processing film, and color flashes. All of it! My dad and older sister also encouraged me to take photos and helped teach me how to use different film cameras. I was really lucky, too, because my high school had a great darkroom, and my photo teacher taught me everything I know about B&W film. Shoutout to Mr. Allen.

There’s something magical about film. It’s alchemical. I grew up in a really conservative evangelical home in the South, which for a queer kid was not easy. Photography helped give me a voice and a way to communicate my feelings. I’ve always found that I can express myself better visually than through talking or writing, which is why I’ve consistently been taking film photos for half my life.

My photography style now I’d best describe as candid, joyful, and intimately queer. A friend once described how I take photos as “capturing moments.” I really like that perspective cause I do try to look for these split-second moments of life that are hard to convey through any other medium like drawing, painting, or sculpture.

When it comes to photography what gear do you tend to use? (Cameras, Film Stocks, Lenses etc.)

I love this question because 90% of the time, I only shoot with disposable cameras. The Kodak disposable Fun Saver camera, to be exact. The other 10% of the time, I use the Ilford Sprite - II camera. The Sprite is really close to a disposable. I really like shooting Ilford XP2 Super Black and White Film with this camera. It’s a B&W film, but C-41 processed and creates really nice mid-tones, especially if you’re photographing people with darker skin tones.

Why do you love to use disposable cameras?

Simple, no one thinks you’re a photographer when you shoot disposable cameras. Disposables are democratic in that most people have used them, and nobody really takes them seriously. I find it helps people relax and act more naturally because I doubt they think the film will ever get developed. It also helps me be more present because I don’t have to treat the camera like a precious object. And you only get 27 shots so it helps me pace myself and makes the editing process much easier.

Do you have any particular favorite Lomography products?

As a self-proclaimed Lomo nerd, I love the Holga and may have to start using it again after this conversation. I also really love the LomoChrome Turquoise and I shot some rolls recently. The film really flips color upside down and makes everyone look like a vampire alien. Definitely going to be using this film again come next Halloween!

What are your biggest inspirations for photography and art in general?

This is embarrassing, but I love old white male French photographers: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Robert Doisneau, Brassaï, Edouard Boubat, and the list goes on. Their photos are so full of life! They really set the precedent for humanist documentary photography.

When it comes to art in general, I’m a sucker for late Italian Renaissance art, specifically Baroque art. The Baroque style is about movement, expressive emotion, and flamboyancy to achieve a sense of awe. Bernini is one of my favorite artists, and I’ll never understand how he captured these types of moments in marble. I think a lot about my photos being a type of modern-day Renaissance painting. Even if you don’t recognize the subjects in the pictures, you can still tell that the image as a whole is telling a story. My roommate and I play this game called “Same Vibes,” where we send each other side-by-side images, usually of my photos, compared to a specific artwork from art history that has the same vibe.

I also love the Italian term sprezzatura, which means effortless grace or nonchalance. It is typically used in reference to the poses or hand placement of subjects in Renaissance art. This is why a lot of my photos emphasize hand gestures or have the image framed by hands.

Much of your work has a distinct intimacy and vulnerability. How do you create an environment where your subjects feel comfortable to express themselves fully?

That is a very kind thing to say, Javier. Thank you. My photos document my life, specifically the queer and trans community I’m a part of in Brooklyn, NY. The people in my photos are all people I care deeply about. They’re my friends, chosen family, and community. I think that when you photograph from a place of love, authenticity, and respect, it can be felt in the images. Now that I’ve been photographing in Brooklyn for over 7 years, most people know my work and are excited to be a part of it. I like to think that my photos don’t just belong to me but are an archive of queer life that belongs to everyone in my photos.

Do you have a favorite photo you want to share, and what's the story behind it?

Yes! One of my favorite photos is of X-Emma putting on lip gloss in front of this bastardized rendition of Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son” painting at my home bar. X-Emma is an artist and performer who was part of a drag show that night. I knew of her, but we had never met formally. I was smoking outside during intermission and spotted her through the front door putting on lip gloss and immediately thought, “Oh my god, it’s like a Renaissance painting.”

I ran back inside and said, “You look amazing! Can I take your photo?” and she said yes. My friend, SK, is the one in the background in the MF Doom shirt pulling out a cigarette because they had just come out of the bathroom when I took the photo. The whole image perfectly sums up the queer cacophony that is Brooklyn nightlife.

What’s really special is that this photo initiated X-Emma and me becoming friends. Now, two years later, this photo is currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum as part of their Brooklyn Artists Exhibition.

How do you approach collaboration with your subjects? Do you have any memorable stories about working together?

Become part of the community you want to photograph and make friends. In the beginning, I would go out to drag shows all the time, but I soon got tired of being a passive observer. Taking photos was a way for me to become an active participant in the queer scene by capturing images and sharing them with everyone I was photographing. A lot of my friends I have now started with me randomly asking if I could take their photo.

You currently have a work called Who Pushed Me in collaboration with @theopulentdoll. Can you tell us more about the project?

My girlfriend, DiDi, and I made this zine this year. It’s 40 pages of disposable camera pics I took of her from 2023 - 2024, all printed on newsprint. It’s an intimate graphic novel documenting a year of love, transition, and joy during a time when trans and queer rights were and are constantly being attacked. ⁣

DiDi is the most opulent doll in Brooklyn, and seeing her perform is actually how we first met. She started HRT a month before we met, so I’ve been privileged enough to witness and be part of her transition. So, of course, I’ve been taking photos the entire time, and we realized that within just the first year of us being together, I had hundreds of photos documenting our time together. The zine became this love letter to each other but also to the trans community at large because, in 2023, the same year we started dating, over 500 anti-trans bills were introduced all over the country. We wanted to prove these bills wrong by showing the joy and love that trans people offer the world.

You have also done a lot of mixed media collages. Can you walk us through the process and what these projects mean to you?

Somebody has been looking at my outdated website! So I studied drawing in school and never really took my photos seriously as art until the past five years. Back when I was in grad school, it was easier for me to work with photographs that had already been taken and collage them into new images. Not only did collage help me hone my skills when it comes to composition, harmony, and balance but it also made me more comfortable with making photos of my own.

I think collage is inherently a queer act. One of my favorite books, Cock, Paper, Scissors, is an exhibition catalog that features some fantastic queer collage artists. In the introduction, they write, “One of the most generative concepts in queer theory has been ‘world-making,’ from the cultivation of spaces for radical sexual possibilities to specifically queer-of-color strategies of survival in which people take what they need from a hegemonic culture that repeatedly renders them marginalized.” For me making collagee was about survival. Now that I’m a little older, I’m more focused on living, which is why I think photography has begun to feel more comfortable.

How does your identity as a trans and queer photographer shape the stories you choose to tell and the people you choose to work with?

I photograph solely for my queer and trans community because it’s my community. Period. If straight and cis people find my photos interesting then great. But my job is to create an archive of queer and trans art as it’s happening in my life because if we don’t tell our own stories, then who will?

In what ways do you feel the photographic world does or doesn’t embrace queer perspectives? What changes would you like to see in the industry?

I work in the art industrial complex, and it does not fully embrace queer perspectives unless you’re Nan Goldin, which kudos to her for doing the damn thing. There are so many amazingly talented queer photographers that I know and access to financial and industry support, even mentorship, is incredibly competitive.

Ultimately, the art world needs to advocate for affordable housing, living wages, access to food, access to clothing, affordable health care, and free education for all. If queer artists, let alone literally everyone, were afforded these things, we would be unstoppable.

Are there any particular messages or feelings you hope your audience takes away about queerness when they view your photos?

JOY! There is so much joy, love, and creativity to be found in these queer spaces, and I hope my photos capture just 10% of that. I often look at my photos from the perspective of little 9-year-old Zac and think how much these images would have encouraged me. To know that a queer future is possible. I believe every queer and trans little kid needs that type of possibility model in their lives, and I hope my art can be that for them.

Has your art influenced how you see yourself or navigate your identity? Do you feel that it’s helped in your personal journey?

My art has been pivotal to my becoming who I am today. Without art, I would likely be dead. The photos I take now remind me to be grateful for the life I have and thankful to be in a community with so many talented and fantastic queer and trans individuals. The more I witness my friends, the more I fall in love with them, and the more I strive to live an unapologetically queer life.

Are there other artists, movements, or specific works that have been pivotal for you, particularly as a queer artist?

One of the most pivotal moments of my life was going to the Whitney Biennial in 2013. I don’t remember any art in the show except for the photo installation by Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst. Zackary and Rhys were partners then and are trans, trans woman, and trans man, respectively. Their intimate photos showed their relationship and transformations over time, and it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever witnessed. That work was a massive inspiration for Who Pushed Me, and I encourage everyone to get their photo book, Relationship.

With celebrating Transgender Day Of Remembrance, is there any message you want to give to the rest of the community?

The future for trans people after this most recent election is looking bleak. None of my trans friends are doing well right now. I’m not doing well right now. In these challenging moments, I find solace in the fact that trans people have always existed, and we will continue to exist. Every trans person carries with them in their spirit all the trans-cestors that have come before us, who have fought and paved the way for us. Let that lineage of ancestors inspire you and give you hope that you are not and never have been alone. In the words of my girlfriend, DiDi, “There’s space for you. There’s time for you. There’s love for you. Believe in yourself more than anyone and never give up. We need you.”

We Thank Zac for their wonderful photos. Be sure to keep up with them on their Instagram.

written by rocket_fries0036 on 2024-11-20 #culture #people #disposable #new-york #usa #queer #documentary-photography #lgbtqia