Coming to Terms with Identity:

What Does it Look Like?

This sustained investigation explores my journey to understand my identity—in terms of sexuality—and place in the world. In other words, the result of this investigation is me becoming unapologetically confident in my skin: my identity. When initially starting the portfolio, I had no clue where to begin, what boundaries I could cross, and whether I was prepared to do so: to show my trauma and range of emotions, to the public. Regardless, I spent hours outlining how I would present my coming out as gay, journey. This investigation is split into 5 chapters, each titled: vulnerability (exploring the effects of homophobia), out (exploring my family's perspective), intersectionality (recognizing my Indian heritage), media (exposing predatory & toxic online gay culture), and anew (highlighting my newfound confidence today), respectively. Each chapter, consisting of 2 to 3 images, varies in methods of digital editing and physical manipulations. With each chapter I had to explore, revise, and refine new methods, such as cyanotypes, overlays, ink manipulation, painting, and salt prints, to help reinforce my concepts.