From issue: #27 Emerging Talent
Briar Pine, Camouflaged
In Camouflaged, Briar Pine explores their patriarchal lineage to examine how masculinities are formed and performed. The project draws parallels between the history of photography and the masculine culture Pine was raised within, both of which carry traditions rooted in control, dominance and extraction. Through this lens, the series asks how transmasculine identities navigate the pressure to either assimilate into dominant cultural structures or resist them entirely.
Using materials linked to conventional masculinity, such as camouflage, blaze orange and military patterning, Pine stages portraits that question visibility and identity. In several images, they apply self-camouflage techniques borrowed from military and hunting practices, as well as from natural systems, to explore what it means to be seen as a trans person in the United States. Camouflage is traditionally used to disappear into an environment. Pine, however, also employs it to become hypervisible, confronting the viewer with the expectations and limitations placed on gender presentation.
Pine reflects on their lived experience and their relationships with the men in their family. Personal artifacts such as hair, testosterone, scavenged objects and family photographs serve as entry points into a broader exploration of lineage. In Self-Portrait With My Father and Brother, Pine holds an image of a hunting trip they were excluded from, an annual rite shared between father and son. That exclusion becomes the starting point for this body of work, prompting questions about what is passed down, what is withheld, and how new forms of masculinity might take shape.
Briar Pine is a multidisciplinary artist and educator whose work incorporates photography, performance and installation to investigate identity within the American landscape. Recent solo exhibitions include Ditch Projects in Oregon, Charles Adams Studio Projects in Texas and PAPA Projects in Minnesota. Their work has been supported by the Center for Photographic Art in California and the Center for Art Research in Oregon. Pine holds an MFA in Studio Art from Washington State University and a dual BA in Art and Journalism from the University of Minnesota. They are based in Alfred, New York, where they teach as Clinical Assistant Professor at Alfred University.
