We were lucky to catch up with Garrett Recker recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Garrett thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
During my graduating year at Portland State University, I was awarded the Andries Deinum Prize for Visionaries & Provocateurs—an annual arts grant for $10,000. With the award, I assembled a creative team and we created The Born Project.
The Born Project is a multimedia exhibition that celebrates individual identities while highlighting our potential to degender modern fashion. Through photography, film, dance and textiles, it explores the often hidden human experience as it relates to our gender expression. Gender has been constructed in fashion to produce a uniform system. There is a silent dictate that occurs simply by positioning certain cuts, colors and sizes within specific departments: male and female attire. With little appetite for risk in an industry catering to a mass market, clothing is designed to serve the conventions of the gender binary.
Underpinned by the notion that the wearer’s body isn’t perfect yet, fashion correlates self-completion with materialism. While gendered dress may seem completely benign, it presents a problem for people who express gender differently. Retail fashion drives conventions of self-expression. This exhibit strips the supply chains that have strategized, materialized, and packaged gender in the form of low cost, low quality apparel to the mass market, and opens up new space for gender expression.
Nine individuals, representing any sexuality, gender or background, were invited to design an outfit that perfectly expresses their true self. Together with a wardrobe designer, they began with a neutral base—the jumpsuit—to then build it out into what they feel speaks to their authentic self. Wearing their one-of-a-kind creations, the participants were photographed in full-body expressions, and then wrote personal statements that captured the thoughts, intentions, symbology and historical narratives that inspired their choices.
If the portrait photography shows those who have dared to live in a gender diverse space, the film portrays the world as it attempts to enforce gender. Pulling from experimental and surrealist cinema, and accompanied by Nelle Anderson’s experimental song, Middleman, the film—Born—explores the implications of gendered clothing on the human experience by chronicling three distinct, interconnected points in life: childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Across all three acts, fabric is used as a tool to explore themes of observation, constriction and eventually reclamation. The viewer, positioned as the public gaze, is made to come to terms with their often unconscious complicity in acts of gender assimilation, and they are invited to exit the concept of gendered fashion.
This project entered by lift during a period of my gender exploration. Coincidentally, the photoshoot of the nine participants fell on my birthday and created a memorable day of celebrating one’s authentic self. Hearing their compelling stories ultimately gave me the courage to adopt my current transgender identity and advocate for more authentic storytelling in the preceding years.
Garrett, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As a young, closeted kid in Ohio, I found my community through TV characters and short films exploring queer identity. It became a safe space for me. I would stay up late after my family went to bed just to enter these cinematic spaces and not feel alone. Entering college, it was important to me to provide these same spaces for future generations so I studied film. During my last term, I joined a producing class on a whim that was instructed by Alissa Phillips (Dracula Untold, Moneyball). Up to that point, I had planned on graduating with a focus on cinematography. This course became a pivotal moment in my future trajectory—I had fallen in love with the craft and I was good at it. Furthermore, it gave me the power to champion scripts with minority characters that deserve to be seen on the silver screen.
As a film producer, I aim to champion LGBTQ+ narratives, illuminate socio-economic disparities, and explore the everyday “monsters” of the human experience. I’m fortunate enough to have many tools and connections at my disposal, and I use these to help elevate artists who are just starting out or trying to get their story told. I’m a firm supporter of art as a communal experience—both from the production side and the viewership side. There’s a type of magic that occurs in a person’s eyes when they see their mental visions finally projected on a large screen or a young audience member gets to emotionally connect with a character that represents them for the first time. These reactions are where my pride sits.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I always thought I knew what success looks like. Growing up, I was convinced that “making it” in Hollywood meant fame and a sense of validation. But what did that really mean? As a teenager, I clung to that vision, pushing myself to fit into an ideal I didn’t fully understand. I sacrificed joy for the pursuit of something that didn’t bring me fulfillment—and it left me feeling miserable.
But life has a funny way of redirecting you when you’re lost in your own expectations. As I grew, I realized that the path I was striving for wasn’t mine. I had been so focused on the destination that I forgot the beauty of the journey itself. I spent years chasing someone else’s version of success, only to learn that true fulfillment doesn’t come from reaching the top. It comes from the process—the steps, the struggles, and the growth along the way.
I had to unlearn all those stereotypes about what it means to “make it” in the film industry. A career isn’t a race to some final achievement; it’s a constant evolution. I learned to embrace the journey, and when I did I finally felt like I had arrived. I stopped chasing the ideal moment and started embracing the only one that matters. Finally, I realized what it means to“make it.” I stopped worrying about what I was supposed to be doing and started being who I am.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
My journey as an artist is rooted in film but extends into installation, photography, and fashion. I view art as an extension of the self, much like how gender is an extension of identity. To me, art is not a zero-sum game; each piece gains richness through its uniqueness. Every medium, whether it’s film, installation, or fashion, resonates differently with its audience, creating emotional connections that can be powerful. When I use art as a tool for social change, I recognize the importance of exploring and implementing these diverse styles. The fusion of these mediums, unified by a central message, can foster connection and understanding among people. I challenge myself to let each piece exist in its own form, celebrating the non-binary nature of art—treasuring what doesn’t fit and embracing the beauty in its complexity.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.reckermedia.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garrett_recker/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrett-recker/
- Other: https://www.thebornproject.org/
