Trans gaze is an ongoing collection of works that document a range of trans identities through collaborative portraits of gender-non-conforming youth. Beyond documentation, it looks at the unique intimacy and comfort that occurs when we witness each other as trans people.
The project aims to inspire and educate viewers to look at the individuals I am photographing outside of gendered expectations, and to reflect on various ways that androgyny can present itself.
These portraits also serve as a historical document for the vibrant community that I am a part of.
I began working on this project in 2016, as I was witnessing a rise in trans representation in mainstream media, but did not feel like it accurately represented the diversity of my community. As a trans photographer, I want to shift the gaze of cisgender photographers profiting off of trans bodies, and to show trans people having agency over their own identities.
I have been photographing individuals I meet both in my direct community, as well as through online networking, who are non-binary/transgender, or gender non-conforming in a multitude of ways. For each portrait, I conduct a preliminary interview with the person I am photographing and ask them what their ideal self presentation is, and how they’d like to be portrayed. We then create portraits collaboratively in my studio space, or in an environment of their choice. This work is all about intimacy, vulnerability, and care. It is a love letter to my chosen trans family: showing the beauty that I see in them, and what it is about their existence that inspires me.