if I had hair, I'd want you to pull it

Through portraits of sex workers alongside images of manipulated or found environments, 'if I had hair, I’d want you to pull it' builds a world within the realm of amateur & pro-am pornography in the US through the viewpoint of a performer themself.

Through portraits of sex workers alongside images of manipulated or found environments, 'if I had hair, I’d want you to pull it' builds a visual inventory situated in amateur & pro-amateur pornography in the US, giving a view into adult performance outside of both the highly-produced content often immediately imagined as well as spectacle documentary projects from the canon. As a performer and part of these groups, I portray the messy relationships between the many sectors of sex work by recreating scenes from my own or friends' experiences, or through shooting portraits via the direction of the subject, instead of the usual opposite. This work also often includes other trans people and the everyday performances they build into their routines and others’ fantasy. It is shot on whatever media is available or safe within the moment, including 35mm film cameras, digital cameras, large-format view cameras, and cell phones.

I made these images in areas primarily around and across Texas, California, Las Vegas, and New York City. They include friends, partners, or clients, lazing, posing, or performing. The spectrum of economic tiers is often transcended or descended clumsily and quickly within the sex work industry. This rapid mobility is reflected in the class markers decided upon by those in the photographs, around both their own appearances and that of the interior spaces surrounding them.