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::QB Series::Meet this BOI::

In this installment of “Meet this BOI” we’d like happily introduce, Ty Chance. A Portland transplant, Ty met QB through our solicitation for photographers.  Subsequently after several conversations both virtually and via phone it was clear to us that Ty is not only a dope photographer, he also needs to be a QB feature of the month.  Read on to find out what community engagement, Portland and life energy means to Bois like Ty.

Ty Chance is a Portland, Oregon based photographer, bicycle safety educator and community activist.  He is a northeast coast native, at heart, but considers himself to be a citizen of the world.  He was the Art Curator for the National Butch Voices Conference last year and was also featured in Elisha Lim’s 2012 Sissy Calendar.  Ty believes that photography is a valuable form of communication and an aesthetically expressive outlet.  He will soon be sharing this skill with the homeless, youth population of Portland, through a local, non-profit organization, so that they may share their own stories with the world. 

“I believe in supporting, joining and reinforcing communities who share common goals.  The word, ‘community’, contains the word, ‘unity’, after all.  We can start a movement by reflecting upon our own, unique backgrounds and finding commonality in the mirror images of our fellow human beings.  We are all children of the world and sharing our experiences can heal and motivate others to change the world around them as well.
 
We are standing on the precipice of a global revolution and our heads should be stuck in the clouds while our feet are planted, firmly, on the ground.  If we deliver our political messages like paperboys and tell our stories like boxcar travelers there is no corner of the world that we cannot reach.  Grassroots organization has always been watered by the trickle down politics of larger, governmental bodies.  Even the smallest groups possess a powerful voice that is yearning to be, and will be, heard.

Ty explains the essence and pull of Portland…

Living in Portland has shown me that diffused light is still light,
nonetheless, and that the stars are always there even if you can’t see
them. Political change takes patience, empathy and the willingness
to obliterate divide and conquer tactics that have separated us
racially, economically and socially. Diverse perspectives have taught
me how to think outside of my own, little, white, check box and I’m
never going back into one again. Want to join me on this romantic, renegade prison break?”

Pictures © Leila Hofstein

19 June 2012 ·