Em Wall, Visible

Artist: Em Wall

Title: Visible

Medium: Film photography archival print, artist made frame

Unframed Dimensions: 6 x 6 inches

Framed Dimensions: 14 x 14 x .5 inches

Price: $1,200

Artist Statement: Taylor Petrey talks extensively about the growing visibility of trans and gender non-binary Latter Day Saints in his article, “History and Theology of Trans and Nonbinary Identity in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”. And how the growing visibility has resulted in panic and even violence against these individuals especially in religious settings. Theologies are not often clear to me, and are less black and white than I think most of us would like to admit. We get caught up in the policies and lose sight of the individual. This photo was taken of my trans sibling and I made the frame made from old church pews.

Artist Bio: For Em Wall the art practice and family are inexorably intertwined. Raised in a Mormon family in Michigan, they use photography to dismantle the domestic traditions and the family structure they were taught as a child. Now, their four children can be seen in Wall’s work representing themselves, the photographer, and ideas of gender and sexuality in a religious family. Using the twin lens reflex their grandpa first gave to their mom, Wall’s photos use Christian symbols to establish allegories where reality and fiction blend to provoke questions about religious and personal truth. Em Wall received their BFA from Brigham Young University in 2020 and their MFA from Yale University in 2026. Wall has been commissioned by The New York Times and their work has appeared in the Mormon feminist magazine, Exponent ii. They received the Alice C. Kimball Travel grant while at Yale and a grant from the Yale Foundation for Lesbian and Gay studies. Wall currently lives and works between Connecticut and Michigan.