Queer Family Archive
Challenging the traditional and heteronormative visualisation and construction of family. An archive to share our stories of our families.
Facilitated by Quetzal Maucci
About Me
My name is Quetzal Maucci. I am the child in the center of this photograph. I grew up with two queer mothers from South America. I am a photographer and educator based in London. I am now building, curating, facilitating a photography archive to create a collaborative space where queer family structures can be seen, heard, and represented. This is a photography archive that I believe is lacking worldwide.
This is an open call for participants in these structures to email me a photograph and a written memory of their family for the archive. I am also looking to partner with queer institutions and organisations for this project to further the reach of this work.
Who?
I am looking for family structures where the parents identify outside of the heteronormative and heterosexual spheres. This could range from parents who identify as trans, queer, lesbian, gay, non-binary, and other definitions you may bring to the archive (LGBTQIA+). This archive also welcomes poly queer family communities. You can always email me if you want to see if your family structure can be archived with us.
Why?
I believe it is important to have this representation documented and archived for future generations. I grew up with little representation of my family in the media and within society. Now I am 31 years old, and I believe it is time for me to reflect on my story and include a space for those in similar structures. I believe we should be represented, seen, and heard.
Where?
This archive will first live on an instagram page called @queerfamilyarchive.
For the future, I aim for the archive to live on a website and become a book and exhibition. I will email anyone that participates about where the archive goes. You have the right at any time to withdraw your photos if you do not feel comfortable participating any further.
To Participate:
I am looking for family photographs that are photographed by the family or friends of the family. You can send me what you feel comfortable with.
- If you have a professional photograph, this will have to be cleared by the photographer. If you have the details of the photographer, I can email them to see if the photograph can be included in the archive.
- If you do not have a photograph of your family, we can arrange for a free photoshoot. I would be happy to photograph your family.
- If you don't want to share your children's faces-you can also photograph your family in a creative way (have your child in motion, or backs of heads)
Email Me:
- Please email me a photo to quetzalmaucci (at) gmail.com
- Send me a written memory along with the photograph
- Send me other written information that you want to sit with your photograph. This could be name, place, year, photographer, location, etc.
And answer all or one of these questions in the email:
- What does family mean to you?
- How has it been raising a child with two mothers/two fathers/etc?
- Do you want to say anything about your family structure?
Important Information:
I will protect your rights and collaboration. You can withdraw your image whenever you like. I will inform you if the archive is selected to be featured in an exhibition or publication and you can determine if you want to take part or not.
Any questions, please email me. Your safety is also of the utmost importance to me, please let me know if you want to remain anonymous in the photograph. We can find a creative way to work around this as well.
Thank you for your collaboration and/or support!
Contact
Email Address: quetzalmaucci (at) gmail.com