Textures of Queer Intimacy is a rambling expression of what it means to be queer on an intimate level, bringing to the front queer-, trans and non-normative embodiments, relationships and acts of love. In the long-running portrait project photographer Jussi Ulkuniemi focuses on creating photography practices that tune into the embodied experience and wellbeing of their photographed subjects. To use their background in dance and somatics, Jussi Ulkuniemi works with embodied consent practices, holds space and guides their subjects towards play, stillness, pleasure, sex, connection and queer joy. As each individual brings their own poetic variation to the core question of “intimacy”, difference enters to the foreground as a place of celebration and protest, challenging cis-heteronormative, fatphobic, and mononormative worldviews.

“Textures of Queer Intimacy” is a presentation of over 300 intimate images photographed on film during 2022-2026, challenging cis-heteronormative, fatphobic, and mononormative worldviews.

Jussi Ulkuniemi is a Helsinki-based queer artist working with themes of intimacy and touch through photography, dance, and performance art. Their professionalism in dance and understanding of embodiment has opened a distinctive way of holding and directing dialogical and improvisatory portrait sessions, enabling unique sensitivity, courage, and playfulness in the people they photograph.