Brody McQueen
Winnipeg, Manitoba
ARTIST BIO
Brody McQueen is a 22-year-old self-portrait concept photographer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. For over a decade, Brody has been creating unique photographs using both analogue and digital techniques, incorporating meticulous digital manipulation and careful darkroom experiments. Working from his bedroom with inexpensive gear and lamps, he crafts intimate images that explore themes of memory, sexuality, family, and bravery.
In addition to his digital work, Brody is deeply engaged in experimental analogue photography. He explores innovative techniques such as cyanotype on glass, blood-based albumen prints, and other darkroom experiments, constantly seeking new ways to create and express his vision.
As an emerging artist, Brody is passionate about sharing his practice and love for photography with a broader audience through shows and presentations. His dedication to his craft and his ability to evoke deep emotions through his work make him a distinctive voice in the contemporary photography scene.
PROJECT STATEMENT
“Revoltingly Red (Awfully Alive) (2024) and Wet Arteries and The Sharpness of Blood (2025) are companion series that explore the intersection of queer identity, public health, and material memory through blood-based albumen photographic printing. Drawing from the 19th-century albumen process, I developed a method that replaces the albumen from egg whites with albumen from blood to create photographic prints.
In Revoltingly Red (Awfully Alive), four prints depict stages of hand-holding, from the reach to the firm grasp. The work responds to Canada’s historic ban on blood donations from gay men, a policy rooted in the AIDS crisis and rescinded only in 2022. By printing with blood, I assert its value and safety, challenging the stigma that once saw it as “less than”.
Wet Arteries and The Sharpness of Blood expands this inquiry through microscopic imagery of red blood cells, created in collaboration with biologist Dr. Erwin Huebner. These six prints magnify what is often invisible: the internal landscapes of life and loss during the AIDS crisis. Each cell becomes a metaphor for a story overlooked, a life unacknowledged. The varying magnifications echo the scale of impact: personal, communal, systemic.
Together, these works bridge art and science, medium and message. Blood, as both material and metaphor, carries the weight of stigma, resilience, and shared humanity. By integrating it into the photographic process, I aim to confront historical prejudice and invite reflection on ongoing struggles for queer health and autonomy.” – Brody McQueen
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that the Exposure Photography Festival is situated on land adjacent to where the Bow River meets the Elbow River. The traditional Blackfoot name of this place is “Moh’kins’tsis”, which we now call the City of Calgary. This is the traditional Treaty 7 territory of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. It is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. We honour and acknowledge all Nations, who live, work and play in Moh’kins’tsis, help steward this land, and honour and celebrate this territory.