Anima Animus is a long term project exploring the borderline of gender.
The first part of this project was commissioned by Vol de Nuits gallery and it consists of a series of black and white portraits of trans* and genderqueer people living in the UK.
Each model has undertaken a journey, transitioning from the sex they were assigned at birth to the gender they identify with.
All portraits have been shot on film with a large format camera, taking advantage of the Scheimpflug principle to narrowly focus on the models' eyes.
This stylistic choice is a visual response to the media's tendencies to only focus on trans* people's bodies, virtually erasing their identities.
The media tend to sensationalize trans peoples stories, mostly focusing on the medical aspects of transitioning (surgeries, hormone therapy etc) and objectifying the individual.
To avoid the risk of sensationalism, I decided to collaborate with the models to create a series of respectful statements to accompany the portraits. In the statements, they talk about their life story, their passions and their transition with a particular emphasis on how it is to be gender non conforming in the UK and what changes they would like to see in the future.
Eden is the last person I've photographed for this project and I'm still in the process of transcribing our conversation
