In our second session with Roy, we were challenged to create a portrait incorporating text within the lunch hour. At first I had taking shots of my housemate, but I didn't like how they turned out and used myself instead. I used a continuous light with a beauty dish, posed on my rug in front of my window and held up blue & punk colour gels to represent stereotypical gendered colours. In post, I enhanced texture, sharpness & clarity, made the colours pop more and scribbled some personal phrases, copying and warping them adhering to the composition. I'm not very comfortable in front of my camera, but this is an attempt at something more personal - the colours are part of the trans pride flag, and I wore purple clothing to represent how I bridge this gender gap in being non-binary.
I'm not a very active part of the non-binary community, because I just sort of want to live my life. This is an expression of that reservation, the simultaneous strength and weakness of existing out of the ordinary, the discomfort that comes with feeling disconnecting from your birth-assigned gender. I understand that not everyone accepts these societal changes, but all I ask of people (particularly certain people from older generations) is to mind their own business rather than trying to convince me I'm wrong, making a mistake, "it's just a phase", etc.
This has potential for a series maybe including many different members of the queer community, sharing their stories. It could turn into a punk-style body of work with the text style, or I could take a more editorial approach as if the pictures were in a youth culture/fashion magazine.
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