UNAPOLOGETIC AUTHENTICITY

To be queer is to hold the power to your differences.

To be queer is to own your uniqueness, and be proud of it.

This series of portraits comes from a place of celebration, love and empowerment. They are a love letter to those that ought to love themselves. No matter your sexual orientation, your gender or your personal comprehension of binary constructs, if you are you, you have the power and your power is a gift.

Based in Berlin, Dodd-Noble attends voguing balls, queer underground parties, drag shows and queer festivals, with the intention of photographing people from queer, non-binary, BIPOC and LBGTQIA+ communities. Through her photography Dodd-Noble aims to show people the strength of their uniqueness and allow them to celebrate how their true self, despite being different, is immensely beautiful.

For the majority of queer, non-binary, BIPOC and LBGTQIA+ people, there has been some form of struggle to express their true self. Their flamboyance is often not understood by their families, the religion within which they were raised, nor the traditions taught to them by their communities.

Within Berlin there are vast communities of like minded, beautiful outcasts, who all come together, because they truly understand how it feels to not conform to traditional gender constructs. Within these safe spaces people are free to be themselves, to dance, perform and come together as one unified force. The energy is infectious with positivity and radiance reverberating off the walls. It is a privilege to attend these events, to witness people being their true, authentic, unapologetic selves.

Photography is prohibited in the majority of Berlin parties in order to create anonymity and safe spaces. Dodd-Noble asks permission from the events and expresses the intention of the images as empowerment. Consent is 100% asked to ensure the subject feels comfortable as consent is non-negotiable. This brief moment of stillness between the subject and the lense is one of calm and trust. The subject is encouraged to be simply what and who they want to be and Dodd-Noble captures simply this. The goal is for this person to be themselves, to feel the magnitude of their existence and surrender to the fact that they truly matter.

Dodd-Noble attends these events to take portraits of these remarkable souls and to show them and those around them, how spectacularly exquisite they are, regardless of what anyone else thinks.