The Queer Family Archives

I'm Ama, a community & family photographer in Chicago. Through The Queer Family Archives, I'll be exploring and documenting what family means to us.

It is a really brutal time for queer and trans folks. We are seeing our community face discrimination, book bans, criminalization, barriers to healthcare, relocating for the safety of our kids, and more. As narratives about us are spun all over the world, this project as an opportunity for us to tell our own stories. Our families - chosen, nuclear, romantic, platonic, tiny, multigenerational, kin, kids, no kids, etc - are our homes. They are bigger than what we might see reflected back to us by dominant culture narratives. They deserve to be documented with respect, dignity, and celebration.

As a mentor for queer and trans teens, I've seen firsthand how much our community's youth need nuanced and hopeful narratives of what their futures could look like, particularly through stories and images of people who they see themselves in. My goal for this project is that it helps our community feel seen and honored by each other. Our families matter so much.

I'll join families in their homes or at another location important to them. I'll spend the morning with them, starting with a recorded interview about what family means to them and stories about their family in this season of life. I'll then do a family photoshoot, primarily using a documentary-style with some directed poses. My family sessions are incredibly fun, high-energy, and far from the draining sessions that might come to mind when we think of family photography. Afterwards, families will receive a photo gallery as well as a slideshow of their photos and brief video clips with overlaid audio of their own words about their family. I'll be writing up the interview for them as well.

These elements will be publicly available online in a family spotlight as part of the Queer Family Archives, which will grow over time to become a cultural archive of the deep love and worthiness that are core to our families. The photos and interviews will eventually be compiled into a book.

Participation is sliding scale donation-based, and the project is sustained through this GoFundMe. The project will start in Chicago, but if funds allow, I'll travel to families anywhere to document their stories. Before donation-based funding allows for travel, I'm happy to travel to document families if they are able to cover travel costs.

An essential part of this project is to cultivate stories that expand the definitions of what family is, which is a practice that has always been present in our queer community. I'll be including families parenting and families without kids, couples and polycules, nuclear families and blended families, multigenerational homes and chosen families. You define who is in your family. If you would like to participate, please email me!

As a doula and family photographer, our stories of family inspire me deeply. It is a profound honor to get to create time capsules of families to look back on with joy for the rest of their lives.

While I have full confidence that this project will honor queer families and positively impact the narratives of family our queer youth have access to, there are several challenges involved. First, the labor alone involved in creating with each family is valued at $1500. Beyond that, there are significant travel costs to be able to bring this project beyond Chicago. Every contribution makes a difference and is greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for donating your resources to this project. I hope the project brings joy and celebration to our community.