“Dear Father” is a project that originated from a desire to establish a connection between my father and me. Having grown up on a farm in rural Brazil, I always felt distant from him, particularly as I came into my identity as a queer youth. I would constantly look at him in search of a glimpse of myself, but instead, I saw nothing. As I grew older, became more empowered in my sexuality, and found my people in the drag community, I started to think of ways in which the camera, drag, and photography might provide a bridge for us to reach common ground. Painting my father’s face in drag was an exercise in freedom for me. The transformation focused solely on his face—a wig and makeup—not to change him, but to offer him a glimpse into my world. We faced each other—literally, figuratively, and lovingly. He trusted me to create a visual world where radical acceptance exists, and where I was finally able to see myself in him, and him in me, finally. The images in “Dear Father” revisit and rewrite childhood memories, retrospectively queering moments of masculinity with which I once struggled: tending to the land, playing football, attending church, driving a tractor, or slaughtering an animal. These once-alienating experiences were reimagined into images I could finally connect with. In this moment, the roles were reversed: my father became the performer, and I—with my queerness, long hair, and piercings—was normalised. For the first time, we saw each other, at last, free of judgement or fear. Inspired by a letter I wrote to my father, lines from the letter became the titles of each image, reinforcing the personal and transformative nature of the work. All together, the series held up a mirror to each other and allowed us to truly see one another for the first time. In confronting what once divided us, my father and I forged an unexpected, necessary, and deeply desired alliance that will only grow stronger from now on.