Briar
Marsh Pine

Camouflaged

Camouflaged explores my patriarchal lineage to investigate how masculinities are formed and performed. The project draws parallels between the history of photography and the patriarchal culture I was raised within. Through this lens, the series asks how transmasculine identities navigate the pressure to either assimilate into dominant cultural structures or resist them entirely.

Throughout the series, I reflect on the patriarchal structures I was raised within to explore my relationship with masculinity. I use personal artifacts such as hair, hunting trophies, testosterone, and family photographs to trace my relationships and history. In making each portrait, I undergo transformations to question how I dismantle, uphold, or complicate the patriarchal ideologies embedded within American culture. Using self-camouflaging techniques borrowed from military and hunting culture, I investigate the visibility of my identity as a transmasculine person, exploring the constraints of assimilation and imagining new possibilities for masculinity. Rather than deploy camouflage as a tool to disappear into an environment, I use it to become hypervisible, confronting the viewer with the expectations and limitations placed on gender presentation.