In any family photo album, there is more at work than memory alone. The photos contained in its pages also stake out a particular set of values–the connections that hold a family together, the events worth remembering. Of equal importance are the gaps between these photos–the relationships left unsaid, the moments not thought significant enough to preserve.

Looking through their own family’s photographs, Vaughan Larsen took inspiration from these gaps to reimagine the history they found. In “Rites,” the series that grew from this reimagining, Larsen takes on the personas of their family members to place themself in moments often unavailable to people who identify as queer. In doing so, Larsen does more than reframe their own family’s past–they imagine a future in which the hallmarks of belonging are open to all.

VL: I first had the Self-Portrait as my Grandmother on her Wedding Day, and then I started looking at my parents’ wedding photo a lot. My parents are divorced–they have been basically my entire life–so when I saw my parents’ wedding photo, it looked so mysterious to me. Being drawn to that image and my family history, I started looking at other family photos. I would sit down with family members to look through their photo albums, knowing they would have moments of ceremony or tradition in them. A lot of the times I was looking for specific moments: weddings, prom photos, things that most people can relate to from their own personal experience.

When I first started making the photographs, I felt the need to recreate them identically to the original. But as time went on, I noticed they were more effective if I didn’t do that, and if I took my own liberty to switch up the experience to fit my own perspective as a queer-identifying person. For example, in Self-Portrait as My Mother As A Cheerleader, with the ball hitting my face, that didn’t happen in the original image of her. I was getting more specific with how I was talking about my personal experience in relation to my heterosexual parents’, rather than strictly recreating the photo. 

VL: I’ve actually been struggling with that. I originally viewed them simply as self-portraits of just me, but as time has gone on, especially as I’m studying how they dress and present themselves, their body language, I am learning to see myself as these people, during the shoot especially. It’s really interesting, because all the people in the original photographs all still living, and it almost feels as if I’m getting closer to them, in a way. It feels like I’m studying this moment that they lived through so thoroughly, and doing that with all the other moments I’m studying so thoroughly, I’m seeing the sides of these family members that I hadn’t really seen before. Including the process of finding the original photograph with them there, talking with them about their memories, I’ve already learned so many things about my mom’s childhood that I otherwise wouldn’t have. She’ll remember her personal moment just from looking at my photograph unaccompanied by the image of her, because she’ll recognize the setting and emotion. The same goes for my aunt, it’s been really interesting.

I’m also struggling with if I view myself as each one of these relatives while I’m making the photograph, or if I’m just this one character that is going through all of these milestones. I’m still figuring out how to answer that for myself, because I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m thinking of this one character I’m playing, or if I’m playing a different character for each. I think that’ll answer itself as the project progresses.

VL: A really good example is Self-Portrait of My Grandfather. He’s kneeling down, posing in front of a camouflage background, and he’s in an army green jumpsuit with military boots, holding a gun. In my response to this image, I made sure to wear a lot of jewelry, had my nails painted, and had a full face of makeup on. I was commenting on the transgender ban with the military, but I was a little nervous that he would take it in a disrespectful way when he saw the finished photograph. When I talked to him about it and showed him the photo, he said he was honored that I had recreated the photograph, which made it feel even more special to me. 

Like I mentioned earlier, it was building a relationship with these people I hadn’t really anticipated at all. Overall, my family has been extremely supportive from the very beginning of the process of each photograph: looking through the family albums, talking to them about their memories, and showing them the finished product. I’m very fortunate that the family members I have are supportive.

CG: Another thing I find really interesting in these images is how you’re playing with belonging in situations where you feel like you haven’t been able to belong, or someone who identifies as queer might not have been able to belong. It’s interesting to me how that fits into contemporary debates about what it means to be part of the LGBTQ+ community. I remember when the Supreme Court case came down in favor of marriage equality, so many people were rightfully celebrating the right to marry as this incredible milestone. But I also remember questions at the time of people asking, “should we try and fit into these traditional, heteronormative notions of love and family, or should we be trying to create our own narratives of what love and community looks like for us?”

That’s just one example, but I see a lot of echoes of that in your work, where you’re playing with belonging in these very traditional, performative moments, but also riffing on them and making something new. I’d love to hear you speak to that play between belonging and creating something new in these photos.

VL: I’m not really sure, because I see this as rewriting history, in a way. For queer people to look at these “family photographs,” they don’t necessarily have people like this in their personal family archive to look up to. I’m seeing this as a way to create a new history for them, as well. Like you said, with legalization of gay marriage, a lot of people acted as if that was the final battle, but that’s why I’m making this project, because it’s not the end-all goal. There are so many things within the norms and expectations of society that still are not readily available to LGBTQ-identified people. It doesn’t even matter if it’s legal, it matters if it’s socially accepted.