Collected Item: “In the Trees”
Your Name
Mattie Provost
Your Pronouns
they/them
Instagram handle, if any
mattieeprovosttt
Work Title
In the Trees
Work Year (We are not accepting images older than 5 years)
2023
[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.)
Non-binary, butch Asian lesbian
[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)
These images, from my project Queering Nature: The Landscape of Queer and Trans-Masculinity, mark my first explorations with the intersections of queerness, gender, and masculinity. A critical aspect of this work was to investigate portrayals of masculinity through the symbolism of nature—asking how non-normative identities can be visualized, insofar our queer futures become not just imagined, but seen, felt, and held. I look to the wilderness, a space to reclaim a westernized, American ‘Manifest Destiny’ of masculinity, and refuse its tropes that ask us to dominate or conquer, by living in symbiosis with the land. These images sparked my drive to create work that envisions queer utopias—resisting simplifications of gender and sexuality in order to cultivate expansive, liberatory landscapes.
[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."
Sophia in a stretched position, framed within Joshua Trees.
[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