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Christa Holka
Biography
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"boys will be... Harley #2"
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My work is largely concerned with a central issue in my life: the politics and performance of queer gender identity. Over the last year, I have focused on two projects: the “boys will be...” series and a digital snapshot series in which I have made over 5,000 digital snapshots documenting the people in and around my life. Both projects represent queerness as it exists in day-to-day life. The digital snapshots show people in playful social situations, and the “boys...” photographs are semi-directed portraits of boys at play, or captured in an emotional moment. There is nothing innately “queer” about them, yet they are very queer. Being queer is my every day life. Yet, my life, my pictures are shockingly-- regular.
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"Harley: Camping Line Strut"
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While I think it’s important that my subjects are queer, I don’t want their queerness (or my queerness for that matter) to be the first thing you notice when you look at the pictures. I have no intention of hiding their queerness, but I think to call them queer images is limiting.
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"Harley/Jillian: Camping Line"
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"Harley/NX Kiss"
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untitled
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I make most of my work using my queer friends as models in a commercial-like style I have used over the years: carefully conceived, meticulously directed, and extremely controlled slick narrative compositions or portraits that explode with color. The digital snapshot series is a departure from this style in its casual nature, but it also has elements of my directed style. Both my contrived style and my snapshots have easily accessible reference points to capture most any viewer’s interest.
The “boys will be...” series is an example of my developed style. It was partly inspired by the digital snapshots and partly by something I began calling “second adolescence”. I refer to the people in these photographs as “boys” because even though they are in their 20s and over, their playful nature, their explorative spirit, resonates with me as that of an adolescent boy. Adolescence is a complicated time, growing and changing into adulthood, but it is also a time of angst and awkwardness and struggle.
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While still awkward and explorative and angsty, this “second adolescence” is more playful and confident, but still new and unsure. It is the uncertainty of finally being “ok” with being comfortable.
In all my work, my first interest is the person in the picture. I want them to look great. I want them to think, wow, I look so great in that photograph!
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"TruthorDare: Harley does Heels"
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Second, I want to show off. I want to show the beauty of the people who surround me and the places I inhabit. I want you be attracted to them. I want you to forget about if it’s a he or a she. I want you to feel like you can't look away. I want you to feel good. I’m interested in a deeper beauty that isn’t necessarily innate, but one that is achieved. I think all of the people in my photographs have worked hard to be the beautiful people they are. These are my friends. These are the people I photograph.
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