Call for Project Participants
I’m a Bellingham photographer and neurodivergent individual in the early stages of a photography project that explores exclusion, belonging, and the meandering paths people walk between these two experiences. I’m interested in talking with people who have found or currently find themselves at the periphery of their social environment. People who are now or ever have identified themselves as an outlier. Because I’m a high-masking white cis male I’ve experienced a significant amount of privilege. But as a neurodivergent person, I’ve spent the better part of my life feeling like I inhabit the social periphery. Like I don’t belong in most spaces. So for me, this project is one of empathy and connection. It’s also about centering peripheral experiences and the paths people take to belonging. It’s about normalizing them in the hopes that those who experience them feel seen, heard, and valued. And it’s about doing so in a way that prioritizes dignity. To that end, the project is a collaboration between myself and participants.
I’m currently looking for participants who are willing to share their experience and are comfortable being photographed. I plan to share photographs of the project on my website, and possibly in a gallery or a publication. If you’re interested in collaborating please contact me via the form at the bottom of this page. In exchange for your involvement, I’ll share digital copies of the images from our time together. Likewise, if you know of anyone who might be interested in this project, please share this page with them.
Below, you’ll find my proof of concept. If you want to know more about me check out my bio or scroll to the bottom of the page to contact me.
You Belong Here
It’s not by choice that we enter the world. Not by ours, anyway. We have no say in where we’re born. To whom we’re born. We’re simply born into it. Into family and community. Into history and heritage and culture. Into stories. From an early age we’re made an audience to a particular canon of stories told with a singular purpose: to shape our concept of self. Their telling speaks to who we are, who we’ll come to be, and our role in the sociocultural ecosystem. They’re reinforced by folkways, mores, taboos, and more — by a profusion of interactions and cues whose frequency and distribution among members of our community are accepted as and determined to be — you know where I’m going with this — “normal”.
Of course, this feeling of being on the outskirts is not exclusively felt by people born into a specific context. People move. Perhaps circumstance places us in a different sociocultural context altogether, among an unfamiliar aggregate. Maybe we’ve migrated. Or worse, maybe everything that means anything to us is — or somewhere along the ancestral line was — overwritten by a colonizing force.
Irrespective of how we arrive, it’s fair to say: not all of us map neatly onto the culture we’re steeped in. Something louder than the conventional way of being calls to us. That something can be any number of things. Autism. A seismic shift in values. A preference for chocolate cake over any other. Obviously, there’s only one right choice when cake is on the menu. And yes, making the wrong choice will make adversaries of us. You think I kid? But I digress. Hmmm. Might I be an AuDHDer? That’s a conversation for another time. Anyway, whatever that louder thing is, it generates a felt dissonance. We come to realize that there’s something different about how we move through the world. About how we’re wired.
However it is that we outliers arrive in a sociocultural context, we feel unsettled. Ill at ease. Unheard and unseen. We arrive feeling like we’re not from around here. But if not from here, where? If this resonates with you, then you understand what I’m talking about. And you know: ours becomes a story of pilgrimage. A sacred journey into the wilderness of self. Undertaken at the periphery. Perhaps alone. Taken on because we yearn for what feels like home. Ours is ultimately a desire for belonging and a hope that we might just meander into it.
Hi. I’m Rob, a neurodivergent person who’s spent the better part of my life feeling like I inhabit the social periphery. Like I don’t belong in most spaces. And this is Centering the Periphery, a visual storytelling project that explores exclusion, belonging, and the paths people meander between to two. It’s a project that prioritizes the stories of people who feel that they’ve been — or currently are — outliers. People who feel or have felt out of place and possibly othered. People involved in the hard work of pilgrimage and belonging. If this isn’t you, that’s okay. You're welcome in this space too, because being left out sucks. I just ask that if you're here, you respect the dignity of others.
Get Inked
It’s naive to think that America fosters a sense of belonging among its demographically diverse populace. Because it doesn’t. Nor has it. Ever. That said, it feels like there are times when it leans more toward unity than division. But this isn’t the historical moment we find ourselves in. Ours is rather a time of significant divisiveness. It’s Us against Them. And the current administration is heavily invested in othering citizens whose politics don’t align with MAGA ideology.
Othering American citizens is a means to an end for someone who’s got an unhealthy itch for unchecked power. It’s used to dissolve social bonds between citizens because disintegrated ties make it easier to dismantle the hard-won rights that make life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness accessible to more than just a privileged few. One of the rights that has recently taken a hit is that of bodily autonomy. That’s right. Despite positioning themselves as the party who champions personal freedom, the Republican party has undertaken the work of policing American bodies. Of course, this isn’t news. It’s their MO. What’s news though is this: in their crusade against self-determination, they’re enjoying overwhelming success.
Assigned female at birth, Spencer is a nonbinary, asexual, autistic individual whose intersecting identities place them firmly in the periphery across several social categories here in the States. But until recently, they were politically aligned with the majority of American voters: the popular vote has favored democratic candidates for three decades. How did Dylan put it? Ah yes, the times they are a-changin’. Republicans carried the popular vote during the last election cycle, and they now occupy the White House.
Like millions of Americans whose household budgets have taken a hit, Spencer prioritized the freedom to make choices about one’s own body over the price of eggs. They thought others would too. But nope. Yeah, inflation hurts. Spencer knows this more than many. They’re a single parent (Who works full-time while simultaneously crushing it as a college student and on their way to a masters program!). But a price can’t be put on bodily autonomy. So how is Spencer navigating this new social position, that of political outsider? Their response is ongoing and evolving. But their initial response involved ink: respect my existence or expect my resistance!
Interested in Collaborating?
Please reach out and I’ll be in touch.