Secret Touch
Handfolded pigment print on washi paper,
2026
Grand Prize, Hastings Museum Open 2026
‘Secret Touch’ is an appropriated 1910 photograph showing two suited young men playing a visual trick on the viewer. It appears each man is holding his own hands, but on closer inspection the photo reveals they secretly hold each others’ hands, touching each other with love.
Their tactile gestures are about offering and surrendering, about trust and care. To celebrate their queer love, I coloured in the men’s shirts and breast pockets with different shades of pink.
The print is handfolded like a pocket square to connect to the ones worn in the men’s suit breast pockets and the tactile nature of the photograph. Framed, the work is shown unfolded like a relic of gay love from another time.
Much of my work is about bodies. Here I embrace the power of human love and show the body as a site of love and tenderness: two men loving each other, not fighting. It’s just the kind of image I was hoping to find and connect to when I was a teenager.
‘Secret Touch’ is included in Hastings Open, Hastings Museum, 3 October 2026 to 31 January 2027 and was awarded the grand prize (overall winner), an exhibition at Hastings Museum in 2028/9.
‘Secret Touch’ was included in the group show ‘Ruin and Repair’, 231 London Road, St Leonards-On-Sea, 20 June to 11 July 2026, curated by Oliver Zephyr Chard and Danielle Friesen.
Exhibition view at 232 London Road Gallery, St Leonards-on-Sea, 2026. Photographs by Suzi Corker
Hand folded pigmentprint on washi paper, painted hardwood frame, size 45cm x 49cm. For sales enquiries contact info@neg-press.com
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