Coloradans among LGBTQ featured in new photo book
Surrounded by chickens and holding two Kermit plush toys, Jerry Shelton was walking in front of his self-described “tuna can” of a home in Fruita when Tom Atwood snapped his photo.
It’s an intriguing photo, the odd juxtaposition inviting the viewer to stay with Shelton and absorb more of his surroundings, both of which were in focus due to Atwood’s use of a wide-angle lens and large depth of field.
Despite the uniqueness, 62-year-old Shelton appears like an average guy — everyone knows someone like Shelton. And that was partly the goal for Atwood, whose upcoming book, “Kings and Queens in Their Castles,” documents LGBTQ individuals in their homes.
“When I was younger, I would look at some gay photography I would see in galleries and bookstores and I felt like a lot of it was very focused on nudity and sexuality,” Atwood said, adding that it also tended to focus on urban and trendy young people.
Atwood, a New York-based photographer, wanted to create a more robust documentation of the multifaceted LGBTQ community, showing that its members are in many ways like everyone else while still expressing a common LGBTQ sensibility that sets them apart.
The self-taught artist spent more than 15 years photographing over 350 subjects at their homes, combining both portraiture and architectural photography. The photos depict people doing everyday things, like laughing with friends or gardening outside. In some photos, the subject is staring into the camera, acknowledging Atwood’s presence.
“I feel like someone’s home often tells a lot about a person and their personality,” he said. It’s a space that the subject has crafted, he added. People tend to be more themselves when in the comfort of their own homes.
Atwood offers us 160 subjects in the book; three of them are Coloradans. Some are famous actors, journalists or otherwise newsworthy individuals, such as George Takei, Don Lemon and the first out gay bishop, Gene Robinson. But others are not well known: beekeepers, sheriffs, farmers.
“Even within Colorado, there ares three subjects that are pretty different in terms of their background and their socioeconomic group,” Atwood said.
There’s Shelton, a retired registered nurse living in the rural Western Slope. Then there’s Tim Gill, founder of Quark, standing in his expansive Aspen home without shoes. Toward the end of the book is Front Range Community College women’s studies professor Oak Chezar, who is living off the grid in Boulder.
“You know, under (President Barack) Obama, things got very comfortable being queer,” Chezar wrote in an email, unable to talk on the phone due to poor cell service. “I liked being seen by others as a human being and not a satanic pariah, and now the game has changed with regressive politics of President (Donald Trump). Maybe we need a lot more books to humanize our experience.”
Atwood spent thousands of hours writing letters, making phone calls, emailing friends, posting to message boards and approaching nonprofits to find his subjects. Although showing a wider breadth of the LGBTQ community, the subjects in the book are predominantly white, which Atwood alludes to in his artist statement.
“The subjects in the series are by no means a representative social, economic or ethnic cross section of LGBTQ America,” he wrote. “Yet a broad spectrum of geographies and professions are represented.”
Shelton said Atwood had stopped by about three years ago, and quickly made him feel comfortable. When moving outside for some shots, Shelton took along the Kermits, which his partner of 27 years had gotten from a thrift store where he volunteers.
“I was impressed that I even made it into the book,” Shelton said. “It just literally means a lot to show people that we’re like everybody else. We live in big houses, we live in tuna cans, we’re rural.” Danika Worthington: dworthington@ denverpost.com, 303-954-1337 or @dani_worth