David De Lira (he/they) is a queer, BIPOC, lens-based artist and educator born and raised in northern Mexico. He is currently based in Schenectady & Syracuse, New York. I met David at the Biennial Homecoming show at RIT this past winter. David’s work explores their connection and relationship to a white queer community that he married into with their partner. David’s photographs of this community are often made within or accompanied by images of northern landscape that is equally new to David’s life. We talk about how David came to be where he is and how David’s family and friends informs who he is and how that is all revealed in David’s work.
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David De Lira (he/they) is a queer, BIPOC, lens-based artist born in 1991 Raised in northern Mexico, De Lira currently residing in Schenectady, New York. De Lira holds a BA in Art History & Studio Art from SUNY Albany (2019) and an MFA in Art Photography at Syracuse University (2023). His undergraduate education dramatically influenced his aesthetic, formal skills, and research interests for his present work in art photography.
De Lira’s work concentrates on intimacy, desire, and love, which have been important elements of his own embodiment, along with the subjects of his photographic gaze, who are part of his chosen family–his husband, friends and lovers.
He consciously uses elements of light, color, gesture, and pose to imbue his photographs with emotional and psychological intensity. De Lira’s work does not attempt to provide definitive answers. Rather, he invites viewers to engage with others in an intimate, meaningful way, requiring them to reflect on their own identities in the process.
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