Make Way: Queer Identity, Community, and You

This in-person workshop explores queer identity through photographic history, personal storytelling, and hands-on cyanotype printmaking. In the first session, Steven will present and enage with students through an in-depth lecture on queer photographers from the 1860s to the 1990s. The presentation addresses the historical erasure of LGBTQIA+ artists and emphasizes photography as a tool for resistance and visibility. Drawing from his own experience as a queer photographer, Miller leads a discussion on how personal narratives can be translated into photographic work, specifically using cyanotypes as a means of expression and preservation.

In the second session, students share a brief portfolio before learning the fundamentals of cyanotype printing, from coating and exposing paper to developing two of their own archival prints from digital negatives. The group will reflect on the meaning behind their images and their connection to queer identity. The workshop concludes with a take-home resource list, empowering participants to continue exploring cyanotype printing as both a creative and political act. Participants will need to provide two digital image files to the teaching artist in advance of the second session to create digital negatives for use in creating their cyanotype prints.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Steven Edward Miller is a Seattle-based multimedia artist whose creative journey began in the 1990s as a performer, writer, and musician playing bass for the provocative and politically charged group ¡TchKung! Since 2001, he has focused on photography and video, developing a distinctive style of conceptual portraiture that draws from his performance background, often exploring themes of queer identity and experience.

Miller's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in numerous galleries and museums. His acclaimed 2004 series Milky has been widely shown and is part of public collections, including the Tacoma Art Museum, Northern Georgia College and State University, and Seattle’s Public Art 4Culture. Additionally, his work was featured in the touring exhibition Art AIDS America at the Tacoma Art Museum, Zuckerman Museum of Art, and The Bronx Museum of the Arts.

In the last five years, Miller has returned to the darkroom, experimenting with digital negatives and alternative photographic processes, including cyanotypes and lith prints. His exploration of these processes is deeply connected to his interest in queer history and the creation of work that is archival, unique, and will outlive any political movement aimed at erasing queer identity.

Images © Steven Miller