For the past 8 years M. Sharkey has been documenting queer youth across the US and in Europe. Sharkey’s photographs
are intimate testaments to his subjects’ powerful self-awareness; at once empathetic and opulent, they are the visual counterpart to the voice these young people have struggled—and lately succeeded—to find. Rooted in the long tradition of portraiture, Sharkey’s
images grant his subjects a full measure of the dignity with which they deserve to be seen.
“I think I’ll always be drawn to this amazingly brave group. Their strength is a continual source of inspiration for me” says Sharkey. “It is their defiance that I want to capture in the portraits. What I hope people might also see is the delight that is the domain of a new generation: the sheer joy of being able to stand up and be seen without shame.”
M. Sharkey began QUEER
KIDS at a moment when teenage sexual and gender identity had just begun to gain national attention in the US. Having come of age in the early Nineties, Sharkey belongs
to a generation that was often hostile to the open expression and discussion of homosexual identity. The project is a celebration of the recent developments within the Gay Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community that allow today’s youth
the opportunity and support to find their own voice and speak openly about their sexuality.
M. Sharkey is a photographer & filmmaker based in New York City. Queer Kids has been exhibited at Galerie de la Main de Fer, Perpignan
(2012), Rainbow House, Brussels, (2013), and at Les Rencontres d’Arles Photographie’s Night of the Year (2014). His work has appeared in numerous international publications including Blueprint, Interview, The Guardian/Observer, Newsweek, New York magazine,
La Repubblica, Stern, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Têtu and TIME and been included in various exhibitions at venues such as the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art, New York, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; The Pride Photo Award & Exhibition, Amsterdam, Netherlands; and the Staten Island LGBT Community Center, New York. In
2000 and 2001 he traveled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates where he curated a series of exhibitions on the work of New York and Arab photographers.
EXHIBITION
Queer Kids
M. Sharkey
Through January 4th 2015
Stonewall National Museum
1300 East Sunrise Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304
United States
