Curatorial Statement

Following the lives of four individuals through curated photography and journalistic interviews, GRIT highlights the resilience of being a young Queer adult hailing from rural America. The countryside, associated with American iconography and the dream of freedom, is often saturated by conservative and constricting beliefs, attempting to dictate who is allowed to live freely. Metropolitan Queer narratives also depict a common trope of the inevitable flight from country to city living. Erasing Queer life from the rural landscape.

GRIT pushes against these narratives, providing documentation of Queer rural life during a time of increased conservative rhetoric in the United States. Through photographs and stories from villages across western New York, and rural Georgia, GRIT creates space amongst the tension, redefining the American dream of freedom.

Curated Narrative by Anna Stephen Tanner

Photography by Anna Stephen Tanner

Journalistic Interviews by Chloe R Laduc