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Photographer Jeremiah Corder: 2018’s Best Queer Artist

Photographer Jeremiah Corder: 2018’s Best Queer Artist

Jeremiah Corder is a gay photographer based in Denver. By day, he works for an advertising agency. By night, he takes photographs—often times highlighting our queer community. Most of his work within the LGBTQ community is of drag queens, leading to a colorful and fantastic portfolio of subjects such as Yvie Oddly and Luka Ghost. He’s done photoshoots for OUT FRONT—you saw his vibrant, colorful work in our Summer and Bodies, Halloween, Pride, and Power Gala issues.

He’s thoughtful about his place as a queer artist in the Denver community, and his work stands out as bold and entirely unique.

Tell me a little bit about your journey to becoming the artist you are today.
It’s been kind of weird, to be honest. I went to college and started out as a theater major, and I was not fitting in, and this was before I was openly gay. I knew that I was gay; I was dating men, but no one knew except a few close parties involved. I don’t really think I had developed my style, which is why so many things weren’t working for me. I went all through college without coming out as gay, ended up switching to art, and double-majored in graphic design and photo.

After I graduated, I finally came out.

That’s when I finally started developing a style and started really figuring out what I wanted to do, what I was passionate about, and how it could influence my work. It’s funny how it all came together. I had a friend at the university named Spencer, and he wasn’t there for very long, ended up leaving and moving to Denver, and not long after I came out as gay, he became a drag queen—Vivica Galactica. She was going through her own journey, and I wanted to photograph her.

It was beautiful and creative artistry; I thought it was awesome, and I had gone to my first drag show and thought it was so cool and hadn’t thought about photographing them. But when Spencer went down this path and became Vivica, I thought it was beautiful and wanted to see what I could do in my style—not just normal drag photography. We did our photoshoot, and my style emerged.

Photo by Jeremiah Corder

How do you make a photo ‘queer’?
For me, it’s finding the right way to do it. I was taking the normal portraits like every photographer; then I started taking drag portraits, and that was self-explanatory in the queer world. I used it as an educational tool, knowing I came out later than a lot of people around me, that was my way to not only open the doors for conversation but educate my friends and family on gay culture, what it’s like, who these individuals are.

It led me to work with OUT FRONT, taking subjects like bartenders and giving them a ‘gay Halloween twist.’ The summer, body-positive issue, for example, it’s about body positivity in a queer way—vibrant, fun, lively, not a yearbook portrait.

So how do you consciously try to ensure that your work remains inclusive, not just along queer lines but including different body types races, races, representing everyone?
It’s pretty easy when you don’t think about it; the issue is when people think and analyze it. That’s when you start seeing issues. For me, it’s like, I want to photograph people; I don’t care about the color of their skin or body size. I care about what they bring to the table. When I’m doing a photoshoot, I want somebody to come to the table fully prepared, have their own creative mind and spirit, and let them help me bring that to life. That’s what I care about as far as being inclusive.

Although I am more inclined to showcase people who like to showcase their artistry. Part of it is bringing their character to life, because so many times you see this drag queen, and you see their look and personality, but you don’t always see them the way they want to be seen. You make up your mind on who this person is when you watch them perform. With my photography, it’s intimate moments with natural, soft light, and it’s a way to get a little bit deeper into who they are as people.

Tell me a bit about what photoshoots with you are like. What do you do to make sure that subjects are happy with how they’re being portrayed?
I’ve been on shoots with several other photographers, so I understand there’s a variety in how people work. In my mind, I’ve never been the type of person who’s like, “Stand here; do this; I’m gonna take a photo.” My work is structured—it’s not overly candid by any means. But I don’t like telling them what to do; I don’t want to push them to do a certain pose or to act a certain way, because I want to capture a bit of their personality in a photo as much as you can.

Take Yvie Oddly. All the photos I’ve done of her, they’re very vibrant and bright; she’s very expressive. Then you take queens like Luka Ghost who came into town from Chicago. Their photos are more ethereal, and all of that is brought out by the queens. It’s not something I ask them to do. I want them to portray themselves.

What’s your favorite aspect of your work?
My favorite part is capturing who my subjects are. As cheesy and cliché as that sounds, it’s who they are on the level of who this person actually is, not so much a façade they’re putting on, but how they could bring to life their own character. For me, as I was going through school, I studied studio lighting; I know how to take a portrait in a studio. That’s great, and it’s a really great way to show off a look, and a lot of times that’s what we’re doing when we’re photographing drag queens; we’re showing off the look.

My work is not meant to just show off their look. My work is meant to show off their personality and give insight into who they are as people. I’m more in-depth, emotional, personal. I want my photos to tell a story, to give insight and educate, rather than to just show off, “Hey here’s a great look I put together.” That type of drag photography is valid and needed; it’s just not what I do.

Can you talk about your purpose behind making queer art?
The purpose of queer art is partially educating people who may not understand or accept it, people who are confused, have questions. I think queer art is important in that case, because it’s helping this world become a better place. On that same note, it’s also giving people an understanding that things are going to be OK. For me as a young artist, before I was openly gay, I wasn’t following drag photographers or queer artists. Then, as soon as I started following these people, it was a whole new world. They’re queer, making art, successful, doing what they want to do. They’re happy in a society that’s not the most accepting. [The art] pays my soul; it gives me hope and joy, and it sort of keeps me going. I had a conversation with a new client right before this, and he was like, “I saw your name and that you were doing graphic design for this project, and I thought you were some old, boring dude. I Googled you and looked at your website, and honestly you’re the coolest dude I’ve ever met. You’re helping this low key business, and outside of that, your work is vibrant and fun, and you photograph drag queens.”

That’s a great example of understanding; all he did was look at my website, and he got happy and was appreciative that I’m not cookie cutter. That’s what queer art is about: how do you educate people about love, acceptance, opening arms to all individuals? There’s no right or wrong gender, race, sexuality. We’re all people. You should love everybody, and there’s a meaning and fulfillment that I get from shooting a drag queen and spreading queer art.

 

Photos courtesy Jeremiah Corder

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