↓ Local photographer, Kate Sweeney; photo by Sarah Pfeifer
Renowned Columbus photographer Kate Sweeney creates dreamy, humancentric work focused on betterment, body positivity By Alex Lewis Story Design by Bryce Patterson
E
ven on the darkest of days, Kate Sweeney still believes in the power of her art. The 37-year-old queer photographer, born and raised in the Columbus suburb of Hilliard, settled into a tiny table at Qahwah House and discussed the portraits she captures of mostly women and femmes, often inviting them to be at home within nature and their bodies. “I feel like there’s no better time,” said Sweeney. “We just need to keep making more of this kind of work. It's the way that we keep resisting. It's the way that we keep healing
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through this climate of so much trying to control and disempower women. What better time?” This understanding of Sweeney’s photography as political, even when that is not always her intention, is an acknowledgement that women’s bodies are inherently political. The Hilliard Davidson alum, who often utilizes nudity in her work, speaks candidly about the self-portraits she took in high school as a way for her to share her “experience as a teenage girl becoming a young woman and constantly being sexualized.” →
DECEMBER 2024
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