Saturday, July 19, 2008

A Series of Questions Photo Project

I was recently made aware of a photo project currently looking for volunteers. It looks like it could be a really wonderful project and I appreciate the artists intent to examine trans and gender issues without exploiting the subjects. I personally am interested in participating and I encourage any other trans folks out there to do the same.

“A Series of Questions” is a photo project exploring the power dynamics inherent in the questions asked of transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, gender-variant, and/or gender non-conforming people. Participants are photographed holding a sign upon which is written a question they have been asked. The questions are then turned on the viewer, shifting the dynamics under which they were originally asked, forming a larger series of questions which many of the people photographed face as a part of their daily lives.

Many documentary photographic works dealing with trans* issues and gender exploit the genders of these subjects, pointing to an “otherness” or inappropriately exoticizing; this body of work seeks to instead point to the transphobia, genderphobia, and gender-baiting that can become part of everyday interactions and lives, forming a more full picture of the various lived experiences."