Weekend Portfolio: Carlos Hernandez's Queer Alienism

The Last Supper

Leonardo's 'The Last Supper' has always represented the value of a family that chooses itself and its beliefs. Within this appropriation of the image, my iteration contests the sacrilegious values of queerness and its constructions under catholicism and conservatism. Moreover, my take relishes in the comforts of senselessness, that which is ridiculous, and anything obscene; privileging pleasure.

Beneath Their Wings

Queer love is often imagined in the margins, yet within 'Beneath their Wings" i prioritize the domestic space as site due to the importance of imagining a safe space; a home. Admittedly, home is more than the location, circumscribed by the memories and feelings of those that make it.

Chosen Family

This image captures the elements of chosen family that are fundamental to the queer worldmaking. In imaging my subjects through the formal construction of renaissance family portraiture, I develop a new meaning to what the queer family looks like.

...con tanto amor...

The violet, a sign of the love of queer folk and their resilience–a symbol left behind by previous generations much as the letters and lessons they've learned before us.

Found in Mars

'Found In Mars' leans into the notion of queer marginality, addressing and exacerbating this concept of 'alienation' that society and the catholic and/or conservative nation-state impose. Moreover, the image focuses on the love and comfort queer folk find in one another. 

In This World of Ours

This image continues to speak to the feelings of chaos that one feels as a queer subject, while making our own way in the world through the mere support of our queer lovers.

Maria's Divine Intervention

'Maria's Divine Intervention' contends with the role of Mary within the canon as it pertains to the subject of queer righteousness. The invocation of the Divine is a tongue in cheek remark as the makeup and posing of myself in the self-portrait references the drag queen Divine in the 1972 film 'Pink Flamingos.'

Sacred Amethyst II

Sacred Amethyst II  references the christian image of the 'Sacred Heart' but focuses on framing the subject as a cultural symbol.

Let Me Go Softly

Support systems for queer people often feel fleeting yet simple moments of joy remind queer folk that there's more to their life than the pain the outside world might inflict.

You and I

Support systems for queer people often feel fleeting yet simple moments of joy remind queer folk that there's more to their life than the pain the outside world might inflict.

Text and Photography by Carlos Hernandez

Photo Editing by Ari Adams

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About the Work: Queer Alienism was an idea borne out of my own experience as a queer person. I was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in a Roman Catholic household; a combination that emotionally and legally reject my existence through the criminalization and ostracism of homosexuality and gender expansivity. Long before I had the vocabulary to voice my truth, the one thing I was aware of was this ever present feeling of exclusion. These works speak to the feeling of exclusion while simultaneously imploring the 'queer world-making' Jose Esteban Muñoz theorized–a variance of modes and dissident acts through which queer people negotiate marginal subjectivity. In my work these acts are represented by the way queer community embraces a rejection of cis-heteronormativity. The aestheticized figuration of the ‘alien’ bears the weight of the marginal experience of queerness. Additionally, these images begin to archive the individual practices in which we find comfort despite alienation–conversing with a queer visual culture. From the creation of new mythologies and beliefs, to the entanglements of chosen family, I render my subjects as part of a broader community of queer people through a queer diasporic approach. My goal is to capture and visualize the comfort, pain, trust, and support I have found amongst my queer community living in spite of the undermining of our so-called "lifestyle."

About the Artist: Carlos Hernandez is a Dominican-United-Statesian artist and scholar based in the New York Metropolitan area. Twenty years old, he is currently pursuing a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography & Imaging at NYU Tisch, with a double major in Social & Cultural Analysis. He began working in lens-based media at the age of 15, beginning in timed media and later developing a love for stills and multimedia work. His current work lies in portraiture, working across the realms of self-portraiture & narrative imagery in order to explore notions of gender, sexuality, race, nationalism, and class. His art and writing has been published in publications such as WhiteWaller Magazine, Art and Type Mag, BlackSwan Magazine, and ISO Magazine. In addition, he has exhibited across the US at the Montclair Art Museum, Sotheby's Auction House, and the National YoungArts Foundation Gallery. Hernandez is a 2021 Hispanic Scholarship Fund & Gilman International Scholar, as well as a 2019 Gordon Parks Scholar & YoungArts Winner in Photography.