Collected Item: “Photographer / Creator”
Your Name
Esther Godoy
Your Pronouns
She / They
Instagram handle, if any
@esthergoodboy
Work Title
Photographer / Creator
Work Year (We are not accepting images older than 5 years)
2026
[Image Rights] Do you confirm that you hold the rights to this image?
Yes
[Eligibility] The Curve Photo Contest proudly centers and uplifts people who identify as lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer women and nonbinary people. Please share how you self-identify, using language that feels most accurate to you. Feel free to include all intersections of your identity. (Examples: lesbian, trans person of color, Latinx queer woman, radical faery, butch, etc.)
Lesbian, Dyke, Queer
[Artist Statement] Tell us more about your photo by sharing a brief artist statement OR answering this prompt: "This is what being ______ means to me..." (Max. 100 words)
Two lesbians embrace in the early morning light at the Madonna Inn, paused mid road trip. Both are gender nonconforming. Neither occupies a fixed role of “top” or “bottom,” and neither performs masculinity or femininity for the other. Their bodies meet without hierarchy.
The work pushes against binary frameworks of gender, desire, and relationship structure. Both subjects are non monogamous.
The energy between them is tender and charged at once, sexy but soft. I am drawn to intimacy that is chosen, time bound, and self aware. A sweetness that exists precisely because it does not promise forever.
In the background, a grotesque male figure lingers in the décor, a quiet reminder of the patriarchal gaze that so often frames queer bodies. The image asks whether this intimacy can exist outside that gaze, or whether it must always define itself against it.
The work pushes against binary frameworks of gender, desire, and relationship structure. Both subjects are non monogamous.
The energy between them is tender and charged at once, sexy but soft. I am drawn to intimacy that is chosen, time bound, and self aware. A sweetness that exists precisely because it does not promise forever.
In the background, a grotesque male figure lingers in the décor, a quiet reminder of the patriarchal gaze that so often frames queer bodies. The image asks whether this intimacy can exist outside that gaze, or whether it must always define itself against it.
[Visual Description] Describe your photo so we can provide alt-text. Example: "Two women holding hands and smiling as they walk in a pride parade, surrounded by rainbow flags."
Two gender nonconforming lesbians embracing in soft early morning light inside a pink, ornate hotel room at the Madonna Inn; one wraps her arms around the other as they stand close together, with a decorative mural featuring a grotesque male figure visible in the background.
[Agreement] In the event that you win the 2026 Curve Photo Contest, do you consent to having your photograph printed for the sole purpose of displaying at The Curve Foundation's one-day event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA) during Lesbian Visibility Week? The Curve Foundation will cover printing costs, but will not cover costs for mailing the print after the event ends.
Yes
[Agreement] Do you consent to The Curve Foundation storing, sharing, and using this image and its description as we deem appropriate, including disseminating on our social media, website, and Curve Archive and Curve Quarterly?
Yes
[Agreement] By checking 'I understand' below, I acknowledge that this contest upholds values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and I confirm that my submission does not contain anti-LGBTQ+ or other discriminatory, hateful, or exclusionary content.
I understand