Profundity can sprout from anything if one chooses to view the world through a lens of wonderment. Cracks in pavement tell their secrets, the reflection of the setting sun’s light composes canticles, angelic script is scrawled with dirty black marker over the doorway to a backroom: “Abandon all you are here. Enter.“

Folsom Street Weekend in San Francisco has come and gone. Walking through the aftermath of the fair was akin to touring a wasteland as booths folded up and the city’s mechanisms of erasure were put into motion. The sun finally succumbed to the fog as flyers, feathers, and memories lay strewn on the hard, crumbling urban floor.

My Folsom Sunday was spent helping a great friend with his show. Mark Chester held an open studio showcasing his latest project, Racial Portraits. I came to know Mark in 2023 after being tipped off on his project by a fellow Leatherman. From that first meeting to the present, our friendship has grown into something I’ve come to value immensely. A fellow Kinkster, Leatherman, Photographer, and Explorer, Mark Chester and I have developed and foster a growing connection through pain, pleasure, and rope.

This was also the first time I’d see myself hung up in a gallery as Mark printed and mounted a portrait taken of me from our first shoot. Decked in a harness and gloves, it’s surreal to know that I am among the history of subjects peopling an effort to provoke and portray the minority experience within Leather Culture. Allowing myself a point of pride, I am grateful and humbled to be included in his gallery.

To that, I suppose there’s no better place to tell you, Reader, something about that experience. My experience.

I am an Indigenous Leatherman. I hail from the Diné Nation in the Southwest. I’m a Veteran and a fierce advocate for my LGBTQ+, Veteran, and Leather Families. Why am I telling you this? Well, Mark Chester’s project pulled feelings from me as I wandered down a post-apocalyptic Folsom Street with my Daddy. There’s a lot that goes on in this Leatherman’s mind and strolling through the day’s wreckage allowed me time to engage in some introspection.

I believe it’s vital for folx like me (a minority within a minority within a minority) to lend a voice, a face to my portion of the collective. As an Indigenous Leatherman, I’ve run into less than a handful of fellow Leatherfolx and these interactions have always been in passing. We exist but we exist apart, our stories perhaps so varied that there is no common thread other then our blood connection to the Land. The socioeconomics surrounding a given Tribal constituency coloring individual experiences into myriad single tales. A Southwestern Native’s story may not be like a New England Native’s or a Plains Native and so on.

When it comes to Leather and Kink, the thing I’ve become certain of is that the Indigenous narrative is largely untold. What Mark Chester’s Racial Portraits project brought to light was how unseen we (Indigenous folx) are. When challenged to think of ways that I, as an Indigenous Leatherman, have been affected by the Community as a whole, I found that I’m neither fetishized nor regarded. In fact, I’m mostly unseen or mistaken for cultures of higher prevalence. To briefly characterize it, I’m seen then unseen, my cultural identity eclipsed by another’s perception based on my appearance. I can “pass” for one group or another but am ultimately unseen for what I really am and that’s troubling.

To be clear, I’m not turning this into a grievance-listing but merely stating my impressions from the Community. I felt that I needed to get this out so that I could have a measure of peace and to perhaps raise awareness that Indigenous folx exist out there in the grand Kinksphere. I know this because I’m one of them and I have connected with a few across socials. It’s always heartening to me to see a fellow Indigenous person displaying their Leather and/or Kink Pride; moreso when they reach out and we have a dialogue no matter how general it may be.

I think, perhaps, that this internal discussion is but one of the many purposes of Mark Chester’s body of work in Racial Portraits; to enable the viewer to think on the minority experience in the contexts of male-presentlng Leather and Kink and challenge held-onto views and beliefs of said male-presenters.

All this said, I was happy to be part of the experience of manning an open studio especially for a good man as Mark Chester who has documented Our Community for decades. I’m humbled to have been part of a gallery of nearly 70 portraits of queer (Leather)men of color. Hopefully, there will be more of Us gearing up and stepping out. In the meantime, I’ll be here holding a space for when you are ready.

Ahéhee, Mark.