At a time when LGBTQ+ rights are rapidly regressing worldwide and references to envisage a future we have ownership of become increasingly unattainable, “IF YOU’RE QUEER, YOU HAVE TO LIVE” is a hopeful photographic and textual body of work that refuses to be reduced, vilified or shunned and instead offers to praise, eulogize and applaud. Queerness exists but isn’t fully practiced yet; building an image of a possible queer future is necessary for those hereafter to unveil themselves and take place.
While the color on subjects creates a sense of futuristic alterity, the stickered text grounds the subjects and viewers in a radical contemporary political context; creating a world between timelines, an environment with bodies that are still familiar and recognizable but out of reach, perhaps in a near future. 

The use of vibrant color reflects a desire to be portrayed under a new light and on our own terms, which combined with the use of text, stands as a clear acknowledgement of the time-immemorial presence of queer bodies, spirits and counters the insistent declaration that queerness is less than and to be ignored. The choice of stickers for text stems from this unapologetic space for playful and absolute celebration.
Each frame is an embodied reality that fabricates a space where queer bodies are celebrated and understood as belonging. 
“IF YOU’RE QUEER, YOU HAVE TO LIVE” wishes to participate in building a new, idyllic and radical by necessity, social imaginary in hopes of bridging our current embodied yet performed reality with what’s next to come. It’s a homage to those who came before us and the ones who will follow.