A photography exhibition exploring the relationship between queer identities and the natural world. The project raises question about what we consider ‘natural’. What privileges do those whose presence is perceived as natural? And how can one find one’s own nature in a world whose natural environment is increasingly degraded?

Combining large-scale landscape photographs, portraits of queer individuals, and images in which the body and landscape intersect, By our nature affirms queerness as part of nature, not its denial. Birdsell works with color, form, and space, creating images that emphasize queer people’s right to visibility, presence, and space—both in the landscape and in the social world.

The exhibition is a part of Eastern Photography Festival.

Jo Birdsell is a queer, nonbinary visual artist and essayist from the Midwest. Her artistic practice focuses on experiences of queer identity and femininity, as well as themes of sobriety, subcultural life, and recovery from trauma. Birdsell’s work stems from her personal experiences as a queer person and person in recovery, while also drawing on sociological research and reflection.

A journalist by training, she now works as a sociologist, which allows her to combine an individual perspective with the analysis of broader social phenomena. Her work challenges simplistic divisions and explores the complex relationships between gender, sexuality, safety, and love. Her goal is to break down stigmatization and enhance the visibility of queer people and those in recovery.

She lives and works in Berlin. Her project, By our nature is a photographic reflection on the relationship between queer identity and the natural world, raising questions about norms of ‘naturalness’ and the right to occupy space.