When Is Kendall School of Art and Design of Grand Rapids Holding Their Disabled Modeling Tryouts
Q&A: Robert andy coombs
By Jess T. Dugan | April 15, 2021
Robert Andy Coombs grew up in Michigan'southward majestic Upper Peninsula where he spent his babyhood roaming the great outdoors. He started photographing his walkabouts in middle school and moved on to portraiture in high schoolhouse. Coombs received a scholarship to Kendall College of Fine art and Design in Grand Rapids Michigan. During his third year in undergrad, Coombs' sustained a spinal string injury due to a gymnastics training accident. After a year of recovery, he returned to KCAD and received his BFA in photography in 2013. Coombs' photography explores the intersections of inability and sexuality. Themes of relationships, caregiving, fetish, and sexual activity are depicted and explored throughout. Coombs graduated from the Yale School of Art amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and is currently residing in sunny Miami, Florida.
Jess T. Dugan: Hullo Robert! Thanks then much for taking the fourth dimension to speak with me today. Permit's kickoff at the outset: how did you initially find art-making and what was your path to getting to where you are today?
Robert Andy Coombs: Ever since I tin remember, I was always a creative child, even when information technology came to my toys. Legos, trucks and a dirt pile, sandcastles, my piddling subcontract prepare with figurines; I was always creating something and making it look aesthetically pleasing. I was also a fiddling performer, constantly singing anywhere I could, dancing, creating plays, so creativity and an imagination was a way for me to have fun growing upwardly in the middle of nowhere Michigan. I was originally going to get to higher for vocal functioning but decided confronting it and went into visual art instead. In middle schoolhouse/high school, I really took a liking to photographing annihilation and everything. It just came so naturally to me, and my art teacher nurtured that talent.
JTD: Every bit you write, your work "explores the intersections of existence a disabled gay male in today's society and [your] sexual/intimate adventures." Tell me about your project CripFag, which is comprised largely of self-portraits and images of you with your lovers/sexual partners. How did this projection come to be? Did y'all take a conceptual framework from the offset, or did it evolve more organically?
RAC: CripFag is an exploration of my body, partners, friendships, fantasies, sexual practice, caregiving, intimacy, fetishes, applied science, access, romance, and more. After my spinal cord injury, I had to learn and balance all of these things, so after a few years I had quite a rolodex of inspiration for the concepts. I photograph what I think is missing in mainstream media when it comes to inability and sex. In rehab, the medical professionals shied away from the discussion almost disability and sexuality, so I had to do all the research, scouring the cyberspace for different pieces of the puzzle. I besides had to explore my torso, and due to the lack of part, I was in need of sexual partners to assistance me explore. And then, I would say it came very organically. And it besides evolved quite a bit from focusing on me as a disabled man and my body to becoming more than almost everything that encompasses me beingness able to have sex/intimacy.
JTD: Tell me about your process for involving other people in this work. Considering of the sexual nature of the photographs, I'm curious, in particular, what kinds of conversations took place before, during, and subsequently photographing. What is the experience of the partners you have photographed? Do you have a particular conversation effectually exhibiting or publishing the images after you take fabricated them?
RAC: Earlier heading to the East Declension for schoolhouse, I was in Michigan, which, to say the least, is extremely sexually conservative. I did find a few of my friends to create some images, but the body of work as a whole started with my body. Later on getting to the Eastward Coast, people from New York, Boston, and a lot of my colleagues from school were very open to helping me create these images. I scour dating apps and social media for potential models. Sometimes people will come up to me and others I will seek out. In one case I find someone who is interested, I come across with them either in person or through video chat, and nosotros discuss our sexual tastes, what they experience comfortable doing in front end of the camera, and simply get a feel for each other. Once nosotros come up with a concept, I pretty much know visually what it's going to look like so I tin explicate information technology to the other person. Some of the fourth dimension the other person is just a model there to exercise their job, and other times information technology is more than sexual. Information technology all depends on chemical science, only either way we both get to share an feel of a lifetime, most of them never beingness with someone who has a physical inability, and then that in and of itself is groundbreaking. Once I send the images out into the world, the feedback I cherish the nearly is having other disabled people finding my work and re-evaluating how they view themselves. Most of the conversations with them are that they take never felt sexy in their disabled torso and I've given them a visual representation of someone who owns their disabled body the fashion it is and is unapologetic.
JTD: I love that. I'm interested in representations of sexuality and disability, which, as you lot mentioned, are lacking in both mainstream media and within the art world. How important is the issue of representation in your work? Do you experience a responsibleness to create representations of your lived experiences because they are otherwise lacking? And if so, how do you navigate this responsibility with your personal creative interests?
RAC: That's a lot of the reason why I started the work: I had very piffling representation for me to look at when I was newly injured. One of the only things I remember was that in that location was a moving-picture show called "Murderball" which is a documentary virtually quad rugby. There was really nix about disability and sexuality. I had to search guys masturbating in wheelchairs in guild to detect out what that looks like. I recall it's extremely of import to be able to see others similar you lot out in the world. Well-nigh frequently people with disabilities are isolated from others who have disabilities so they don't know the possibilities of what their life could be. I don't necessarily feel responsible, only I practice know that there is no one else that could make the work that I am making. I'm not trying to sound conceded or full of myself, but I take sure privileges and access that a lot of other people similar me don't have, such every bit purchasing cameras, having a peachy support system similar caregivers, roommates, and photograph assistants, and friends/family that support what I'thou doing. There are just a lot of factors that go into creating the images I'one thousand creating. You as well take to be a sure type of person to exist able to suck dick in front of the camera, show it to people, and call it your art! I just want to create the images that I want to see in the world.
JTD: Talk to me nigh strength and vulnerability; you share highly personal and intimate aspects of yourself from a identify of force and confidence. How do you think nearly the human relationship between strength and vulnerability, and how does this manifest in your work?
RAC: Being a disabled person, you're always in very vulnerable situations. Existence naked in front end of complete strangers, having them breast-stroke you, feed you, drive your machine, asking someone to get the door for yous… you lot are always left very vulnerable. When it comes to my strength and confidence, a lot of that has to practice with my upbringing. I grew up able-bodied with a supportive family that nurtured my talents and immune me to be myself. I also liked what I saw in the mirror. And then, when my accident happened, I had already developed this personality and ego, so the harm was already done. Despite becoming disabled and experiencing a drastic alter to my body, y'all couldn't tell me I was anything other than talented, handsome, and a boss ass bitch. Self-love allows me to accept these very vulnerable aspects of my life and turn them into something meaningful. I will show yous all my insecurities and vulnerabilities; by doing that I have and so much power.
JTD: I'm curious about your Polaroids, which are organized on your website by location: Miami, Yale, and Chiliad Rapids. At that place's a softness in these photographs, due, in part, to the fact that they are Polaroids, only besides due to the content and the moments you've called to document. How do these images intersect with the photographs in your other projects? Do y'all create the Polaroids with a different purpose or intent?
RAC: I started photographing with Polaroids while studying at Kendall College of Art and Pattern. Information technology was the Myspace/Facebook golden era and so much of the photography at the time was point and shoot digital for social consumption. I think subconsciously I wanted to photograph my time spent with friends to encapsulate more than taking an unlimited number of photos. It really made me slow downwards and cherish each frame I had in a ten pack of film. It nonetheless allowed for experimentation but was just constricting enough to keep my senses heightened. $twenty for a pack of film was a lot of money, and I would bounciness checks at CVS in order to buy them, then I was making sure each frame was well-concepted only also playful. The aforementioned year they stopped making Polaroid motion picture, I had my spinal cord injury. And then, there are ii major reasons why y'all see a gap in my Polaroids. They started making the pic again right effectually the time I got accepted to Yale. My Polaroids really influence how I frame my dissimilar photo shoots. It allows me to be more playful and show a trivial bit more than behind the scenes. I am likewise influenced by the history of Polaroids and the gay customs, and how they immune documentation of the gay lifestyle without the fear of being outed. I'd similar to keep the tradition alive.
JTD: On a slightly more specific note, tin can you tell me most your "Hi my name is" tattoo on your chest and what information technology means to you? I beloved that you have written in it in diverse photos: one says "Bitch," another says "Master." I'k curious to hear more than about this.
RAC: This was my first tattoo. At the time, in that location was a lot of discussion on concept tattoos within my friend grouping. I was always the naked guy at parties so information technology seemed plumbing fixtures to have a name tag so everyone could know who I was… well, for that night at least. I left it blank so that I could be anyone I wanted to be that dark. Little did I know it would come in handy for my artwork.
JTD: Who practise yous look to for inspiration? Are there kinds of images, or representations, you wish you had seen when you were coming of age, but didn't?
RAC: I look at my friends and our relationships, the things we do together, the things they help me with, and how it looks to the outside world. I honey watching porn, and the gays of social media, different trends of what and how they photograph, and their use of light. The images I make are what I think is lacking and what I needed when I was not only a young gay male person but a young disabled gay male.
JTD: What are you lot currently working on? What's on the horizon for you as an artist?
RAC: I am starting to do more than artist talks, I am photographing a lot of street photography at South Beach here in Miami, coming up with new concepts for CripFag, photographing the beautiful boys of Miami, and hopefully I will exist able to start teaching as a professor in one case the hiring freezes are over.
JTD: Wonderful, thank you and so much Robert!
All images © Robert Andy Coombs
Source: http://www.strangefirecollective.com/qa-robert-andy-coombs/
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