Do the objects we hold dear actually provide a window to our souls? Queer Collections is a series of interviews and photographs exploring the eccentric and carefully curated manners of collecting within self-identified queer communities. Through print interviews and photography, Zoe Rosenblum and Tristan Crane, alongside the collectors themselves, explore how the objects we hold dear inform our construction of identity and belonging—our vulnerabilities and anxieties, our joys and fantasies. 

Queer Collections celebrates these complexities, getting to the bottom of such burning questions as what makes the perfect painted quarter? The most appealing Cub Scout uniform? The ideal alchemist’s suitcase? Oh, and what’s up with that jar full of belly button lint?

Zoe Rosenblum

Curator

Zoe Rosenblum (she/her) is a writer and letterpress printer living in Oakland, Ca. She works as the studio manager at The Key Printing & Binding and holds an MFA in English from Mills College in Oakland. Her work has appeared in BelleSF and Nowhere magazines and focuses on identity, food politics and mental health. She is the principle curator and interviewer for Queer Collections.

Tristan Crane

Principal Photographer

Tristan Crane (he/they) is a queer photographer who lives in Oakland with their partner, two cats, and more plants than is possibly healthy. They collect cat whiskers in a jar, tea from around the world, and hoards of digital photographs. Tristan holds a degree in fine art photography from San Francisco State, and currently works as a freelance documentary and wedding photographer specializing in queer and alternative ceremonies.

Contact them at  www.tristancrane.com

Thanks to our consultants: Emji Spero, Emily Phillips, Nana Twumasi, Maya Weeks & Kristina Seil