Seeking Embodiment:

I knew when I was five that I was not a girl. I also knew that I was not a boy. Not until I was at least three years into college was I able to start articulating clearly how I identify, and how my body expects to manifest physically. Even now, it is hard for me to find the language to verbally communicate my experience of my body in a way that is accessible to the imaginations of other people. My photography has become an integral part of my transition in that each work is a distillation and transformation of myriad emotions, thoughts, and experiences. By creating the work, I have been able to step back further and examine elements of my soul that I could never have articulated with words, and this has helped me immensely towards a better understanding of what steps I need to take with my physical body to help it most fully embody my psychological one.

Transitioning, for me, is about so much more than surgery. It is about finding myself, and finding ways to interact with, have dialogue with, and live around the two-gendered, two-opposing-bodied (male and female) social systems that are so prevalent in this world. I am showing all of the photographs in this room together so that hopefully a little of my experience may become clear.

Madeleine de Sinéty is a dear friend of my family who is a professional documentary photographer. It was her idea to document my physical transition, and she will continue to work with me as we move towards eventually publishing a book.

My deepest thanks and gratitude go to Madeleine, Pipo Nguyen-Duy, Reese Himmer, Nanette Yannuzzi-Macias, Mark Smitkowski, Kyle Michalak, Mia Shapiro, Michel Dedeo, Mika Ebbesen, Jennifer Ray, and Robin Weeks, as well as my family, professors, friends, and classmates, all of whom have helped immensely to make this show what it is.