‘Queer Americana’ Pt. 12: Caleb
By James Dillon III & Caleb
We reached out to Maine-based photographer James Dillon III earlier this year about running their ‘Queer Americana’ series on CQ and we’re proud to finally be able to bring it to you.
Photographed on a road trip across the country, Dillon’s series pushes buttons by setting up curious contrasts and juxtapositions, sometimes subtle and sometimes not. It’s a reflection of how queerness feels in our own personal spaces versus how it feels in the larger world around us—it is simultaneously familiar and foreign.
‘Queer Americana’ is a reminder of how one size doesn’t fit all. And yet, each of us must find ways of being in the world and ways to feel comfortable in our own skin. It is, at times, challenging.
Welcome to #queeramericana
Please read Dillon’s primer for the series, visit their website, or consider becoming a Patreon subscriber.
To enjoy the latest from this series, subscribe to the Queer Americana YouTube channel, where you can view episodes of the new Queer Americana docuseries from James Dillon III and Ryan Vachenzo.
“From a young age, like many queer youth probably, I feel like I was taught to hide. When that lesson was taught to me, I think I tried to compartmentalize myself, which caused a vivisection of my ideas and actions and labeled them right and wrong. If I was my own house, I felt like I had rooms I couldn’t go into. They were already there, but their contents… too sinful to be explored. For a long time, I never opened those doors because I was scared and ashamed they were a part of me that I couldn’t get rid of. For me, being queer has been a journey to a new home of self-acceptance. An acceptance so radical, I feel freedom greater and deeper than I ever have before. Beautiful and loved. I feel like I live in a mansion of a thousand sun-lit rooms with enough joy to fill each one.”
-Caleb
James Dillon III is an artist living in Portland, Maine. A self-styled Renaissance Queer, they use photography, writing, and performance art to explore, celebrate, and challenge the world around them.