I learned to identify romance and intimacy through images of man and woman. In order to create an intimate, visual narrative that I could relate to, and to preserve the fearlessness and shamelessness we felt together, I documented my sexual and domestic relationship with Jonas. Previously, there were hands, belonging to boys, that I could not bring myself to hold, in public, for fear of impending ostracism. Amidst mixed company, I have even preferred to adopt gender ambiguous pronouns, beginning sentences with, “the person who I am dating” instead of “my boyfriend.” But, at 23, while paired with Jonas, I felt natural and confident in my affections.
