ARTIST STATEMENT
Since relocating to rural, central Pennsylvania from having lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles for most of my life, I am now faced with a new question as a self-identified queer Asian man living in the country – how do I fit in my rural landscape amongst the white faces, red barns, and camouflage? To answer this question I make photographs that present queer gender performances and expressions in the country but that are largely missing from representations of the country.
While queer gender performances and identities are becoming increasingly visible in urban settings, they remain the subaltern in a rural setting. Working primarily in the domestic space of my country home (and, often my basement), I turn the camera on myself to create characters that appropriate, blur, and satirize the constructed archetypes of masculinity and femininity.
My self-portraits showcase representations of queer identity in rural America – thus, taking back rurality – that are largely absent in representations of both rurality and LGBTQ communities. To be an out, self-identified queer individual and artist in rural America means to stand out from the camouflage.
BIOGRAPHY
Sanh Brian Tran received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law. He was the first person in his immigrant Vietnamese family to join the ranks of the white-collar worker, and promptly broke his first-generation parents’ hearts by quitting his attorney profession to become a self-taught photographer.
Influenced by his background, Tran explores themes of identity and class through fashion and taste culture. He is fascinated by the allure and inherent fiction of the American Dream from a different perspective.
Tran moved from San Francisco, California, to a small town in central Pennsylvania, and currently lives and works in Lewisburg, PA. He is working on a series of self-portraits that explores what it means to be non-White and gay in rural America.
