Del LaGrace Analysis.

Del LaGrace Volcano is a genderqueer, intersex photographer and performer from California, USA, who is most known for their work as a portraiture photographer and activist whilst also finding an interest in depicting gender identity within their work. They often takes their photographs within an internal studio space or outside on-location shoots of other transgender, nonbinary, or genderqueer people focusing on how they wish to portray themselves to both them and the people around them. I decided to focus my research on the work of Del LaGrace Volcano, mainly on their project titled ‘Me, Myself & Eye’ which is a series of photographs of themself as a child being forced by their parents to identify and dress as female and photographs of themself now identifying as both male and female and having the freedom to portray themself however, they want to be seen. I decided to focus on this series of photographs for my research as I intend to create a series of photographs based on myself and my journey and transition as a transgender, bisexual male. By researching and analysing the work of this artist for my final major project, I hope to be able to create a series of photographic works based on the theme of gender identity, the LGBTQ+ community based on the theme of portraiture, self-portraiture, and documentary photography.

Many of the photographs created by Del LaGrace Volcano keep the focus solely on the sitter within the studio space or external outside locations to fully keep the focus of their target audience on the chosen sitter, which is Del LaGrace Volcano themself. Within this series of photographs Del LaGrace Volcano uses both new and found photographs to depict their gender identity and expression from the age of 3-4 years old to present time. By doing this I feel that Del LaGrace Volcano is able to not only create a story and document their own struggle with gender identity and the fluidity of it within their photographs, but they are also depicting ways that they continue to express themself both in their private life and publicly around other people.

As a lot of the photographs created by Del LaGrace Volcano are staged within a studio setting or outside on-location environments a lot of the lighting they use varies between artificial and natural lighting, often times leaving the photographs minimally edited so no attention is drawn away from the sitter/sitters within their photographs. Unlike many of the other artists I will be looking at and researching for my final major project, Del LaGrace Volcano’s work is focused solely on documenting their own struggles with gender identity and their life as a genderqueer intersex artist, photographer, and performer through both the use of found imagery of childhood photographs and newly created imagery. I feel that by using these two different types of photography, Del LaGrace Volcano has been able to create a series of photographs that allows them to show their own process of their transition and how the person they are today has differed from the way they identified and were perceived by others as a child. I quite like the juxtaposition that this also creates within the work of Del LaGrace Volcano as I feel like it creates a clear shift within their acceptance of themself as well as showing their target audience the clear break between the social impacts on their life as a child – being made by their parents to identify and dress as female – and the more personal acceptance of themselves shown through photos of them in the present day and identifying as both male and female.

Whilst looking at and researching the work of Del LaGrace Volcano I have noticed that they use a minimal colour scheme within their work as well as their use of lighting and the backdrops used within the studio space and external location that they are taking the photographs in which I find almost inspirational towards my own ideas relating to the themes of portraiture, more specifically self-portraiture, photography and transitions and change and how I intend for my own photographs for my final major project to look. I feel that the use of colour is a big influence on the mood and atmosphere of a piece of photographic work, especially my own, so looking at the use of colour and monochromatic tones used by Del LaGrace Volcano and how they use the colours to depict not only the age of the found photos but also their own feelings towards the version of themselves depicted within the photograph as the majority of the monochrome photographs are of them in their teenage years, years that they have specifically said they dislike and were struggling to understand and find comfort within themselves. As proven from the caption on their website that reads: ‘There are almost no surviving photographs of myself as a teenager. Every photograph was evidence to me that I was somehow monstrous.’ Their use of colour is something that I may potentially look at further for inspiration whilst creating my own work. I also like the way that the background within the photographs created by Del LaGrace Volcano creates a sense of ‘leading lines’ within their work, for example, the metal grated fencing creates a leading line of focus that draws the audience’s attention to follow the fencing down to the sitter within the photograph. I feel that this also helps to make the sitter seem more central within the composition of the photograph keeping the focus solely on them without any other distractions. 

For my outcome relating to this artist research, I will be creating my own series of self-portraiture photographs based on the theme of the LGBTQ+ community, more specifically my own struggle and transition as a Transgender, Bisexual male. Since I will be focusing my work on self-portraiture, I intend to take photographs of myself within my own home to document my own transitional process and the change I have gone through and continue to go through and the struggles I have and face with gender identity, dysphoria and how I am seen both socially by others and by myself. I hope that by creating my final major project based on this topic and the themes I could spread more awareness with my target audience about the lives of transgender, non-binary and gender nonconforming people.