వెళ్ళొస్తా
vellostha, 2020 - ongoing
‘Vellostha’, in my native tongue Telugu, literally translates to ‘I will go and come back’. With this phrase, when you say goodbye you instantaneously promise a return. In returning to my hometown in India, I am saying ‘Vellostha’ to my current queer, gender non-conforming self, revisiting a nostalgic traditionally gendered self and repeating the process in reverse as I come home to Brooklyn. This photographic project is a synthesis of this iterative journey. This project was awarded the 2024 Aperture Google Creator Labs Photo Fund.