WORDS BY IRVIN RIVERA

When photographer Maxwell Poth’s raw, inviting, and beautiful black and white photographs graced my instagram feed a few years back, I instantly clicked follow. Why shouldn’t I? His feed breathes life. You can tell how each subject tells their stories through their eyes and invites the audience to look deeper. There is power in the simplicity of his portraits and that is what drawn me into his works. A few years forward, Maxwell launched Project Contrast- a dynamic portrait project where he places the beautiful faces of queer kids in the spotlight; highlighting their stories to inspire courage, hope and love.

I met Maxwell a few years back while photographing in Utah. He is such a ball of energy, always smiling, and very accommodating. I am already familiar with his work but I was curious to know more about him and his projects. So when this opportunity to sit down with him and take his portraits happened, I was instantly elated.

It was inspiring and exciting to speak to him about the evolution of Project Contrast throughout the years- from the story that sparked it’s conception, to the success of its exhibitions and tours, to its upcoming book and projects.  

Read and be inspired by Poth’s story and discover how he used photography as a means to cope with depression and as a medium to spread the message love to his audience.

How was the evolution of project contrast from the beginning up to today?

It happened on accident. I obviously put it together and made it what it was.

I grew up in Bountiful, Utah, a very Mormon town and came out at 17 years old. I was the only openly gay kid in my entire town and it was hard for me. Fast forward, of course it got better.

Then about 5-6 years later, a boy in my same hometown came out gay but he ended up taking his own life. I really didn’t understand. I was hoping that it wasn’t my community that was treating him badly to make him think he was so alone.

I was alone.

Back in Bountiful, when I was in highschool, I had no one to talk to. I just wish I had that.

Right around that time, I was back home in Utah working and photographing people. I ended up working with this 16 year old who is a drag queen at Murray High School , which is a neighboring highschool. He was just so confident in who he was. Everything about him was just everything I wanted when I came out in highschool at that age.

And I thought to myself, if this boy who took his life in my hometown would’ve known that maybe someone just like him is only just six miles away, maybe that could’ve save his life knowing he wasn’t alone.

So I asked the boy I was photographing if he would write the story of what made him confident- being so young in his conservative community and how he was doing what he’s doing. He was walking in heels down hallways and was being himself!

I worked with The Advocate a lot and Out Magazine a lot and back then so I decided to collect these stories. When I got his story, I decided to photograph two other boys I knew of that are openly gay in their highschool and I asked them to share their stories as well. We launched those stories as well as mine, and introduced why I was doing it. That was Valentine’s day of 2017. And it just did so well. We released the stories and the photos and we got emails from a ton of people. Not just from adults but also from kids thanking these boys for sharing their stories. A lot of it came from Utah, because these boys grew up Mormon like I did.

They were in my opinion, on their way into saving lives and helping people realize that they were not alone.

So I decided to go back to Utah and I decided to throw a big show there where I photographed a ton of queer kids. We had their stories and put them up in an art show. We had over a thousand people come in the four hours that we were open. And the first person at the door was the Mayor of Salt Lake City.

It was just a beautiful night of faces of queer kids who were proud to be who they are. We put them in booklets and we sold those as well that night. I felt so complete doing something like this because I grew up alone and I grew up wishing I had kids I could relate to. So that’s when I decided to turn it into a non-profit and give it the name- Project Contrast. I decided to go national with it and I have been for the past years travelling the country, working and photographing queer kids

And sharing their stories

Yes. And we have collectively almost 250 stories total and we have travelled in 16 states. And all the states that we’ve been to are places that people don’t necessarily think of, like the mid-west. We’ve gone to Nebraska, Oklahoma, and also Alaska. It’s been great, it’s been beautiful and now we’re working towards getting our actual publishing deal. We just got a book agent and now we’re on our way.

Congrats!

Thank you!

What is Project Contrast up to this year?

This year is definitely a year of making things happen. We are 3 years old. We build our foundation out of what we are and what we want to do. We have our goals checked and we are now in line. It is hard to start something from scratch. At first when you put things together, you’re not really sure but I have my goals in line now. For 2020 we’re going to travel to new locations but we are going to ask these kids and adults in these centers to dig deep in their stories this time because the stories we collect for next year are going to be published in an actual book. If this goes well, I wanna do another volume in the US. Then I wanna go to Canada. I wanna go to London and Mexico. We are actually already in the works and we are doing Philippines this year. A non-profit who works with queer people there asked me to join them and work with them. It’s the year of doing it and setting it up for our long time goals.

That’s so exciting!

Yeah!

You always say, “You are Loved” in social media platforms, you just pepper love everywhere which was amazing. How do you think that message helps your viewers?

You know what, I think the things that truly matter are tiny little reminders everyday that you are loved.

I don’t even know how I started doing it, really. I think when I used to work with the kids and meet them, that’s like something that immediately comes to my mind when they would be crying in their interviews. I’m like, “You are loved.” And I just kept saying it to the point that I woke up one morning and just put it on my instagram and people are like, thank you for the reminder. Now I do it literally every single day and it became my brand, it became Project Contrast’s brand. Daily, now I get texts, dm’s or messages and pictures from people all over the world sending me You are Loved signs saying look, “Thanks Maxwell Poth for the reminder!” It’s definitely become something that I think I will always do.

That’s great! Now let’s talk about your photography and your portraiture and how you were able to transform it into something amazing-from portraits to actually helping people. What inspired you to get into photography?

I’ve always been intrigued by photography. I’ve always been intrigued by pictures. Honestly I love watching America’s Top Model and Project Runway. I love the gowns on the women and I only care about the photos on the end of each episode. I never really cared too much about what’s going on during the show. I’m just like let me see the images. I was always obsessed with the beauty they are capturing and I was always obsessed with the unique women and men that are always made fun of on camera.

To me, they are really gorgeous people. I was a model for years, and I did a few campaigns for my agencies were very great to me but I decided that it wasn’t for me and it wasn’t fulfilling and I went to a huge depression at this time when I discovered photography. I picked up a camera and every time I take photos of people, my depression would go away. I have a degree in epidemiology. I went to school for Public Health so I didn’t necessarily prepare to become a photographer but it’s a passion I found late and it definitely saved me from depression amongst many other things. That’s how it started. I started taking portraits of many people and I realized that I wasn’t necessarily in love with campaigns or photographing commercials. I really love just capturing humans as they are. I love capturing laughter and conversations. That’s really one thing I get out of people. That’s one comment I get the most is that my portraits are so lively and that I always capture people as who they are. I decided to try it, went for it and here we are.

If you were a book, what book would you be and why?

Oh my gosh. The book I’m creating. I wanna be the book where we just spread messages of love and hope and strength and confidence and really applying that to helping others and reminding them everyday that they are loved.