Artist Statement
On a vacation to Brazil with my husband and two year old son last year, I was struck by the openness of Rio de Janeiro’s transgender ‘women’. I was less interested in the showgirls and performers but drawn instead to the ones who led regular lives that dressed for themselves, on the job, in the street, at home rather than on stage. I made some portraits in Rio and when I returned to Los Angeles was inspired to continue photographing transgender people.
The exploration of gender identity and gender perception has certainly been well covered in contemporary photography but I find transsexual portraits are often an exploration of the subject as a sexualized fetish or object. A different cultural climate exists now than the one 30 and 40 year ago when some of the seminal photos of drag queens were made. I believe there is a movement toward greater assimilation and acceptance of transgenders in our society as the trans community redefines its goals and place. There is less emphasis on becoming a surgically imperfect woman that living, dressing and being acknowledged as a woman. The issue ahs become less about sex and more about gender and acceptance.
It is our appearance that gives the world the initial impression and information of who we are and what we are. The desire by many transgenders ‘to pass’ in order to assimilate struck me as a shared obsession with the black community trying to find its place in white society in the 1950s. As a person of a mixed race background I have always been fascinated by plurality. I’ve gotten used to being asked ‘what are you’ even though the answer of being Black and mixed (Native American, Spanish, French) never seems to satisfy; I’m all of the above yet not representative of one thing in particular. As color lines have blurred, so do the boundaries and stereotypes surrounding gender.
I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to look into the eyes of my subjects and experience the discovery of so much more than the first glance, the first impression. The transformation exists within the individual as well as the ability to embrace aspects of both male and female in a changing cultural climate.
The photos are framed, 20x24 C-Prints from medium format color negatives.
