I’m a multidisciplinary artist who explores ideas such as queerness, latine heritage, identity, and the beauty of human and nonhuman form. Through the lens of the camera, I capture moments in time which are twisted into a romantic and surreal scene. The work is an exploration of the question:

If there is no one around, and nothing around oneself is a factor, how would you manifest?

Through the combination of blown out highlights and black backgrounds, viewers are asked to ask where we are and how one reaches this space. Is this ascension, or buried somewhere way below? It is neither here nor there, heaven or hell, but a space in which one can become anything. Traversing these voids spaces allows room for queerness and identity to emerge from the recesses of my mind and allow me to perform constructs through the undertones of conservative latine culture. 

Ash Sorto-Montufar is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on photography. They were born in New Jersey and are now based in Chicago.