art

Feb

11

Intimate Portraits

Sexuality and Fantasy / Transgender Life  Posted by / 0 comments

I was watching an episode of Pan Am the other day, in which a stewardess was mortified to find her privately-taken nude photos in a local art gallery.

The gallery owner was quite sympathetic to her embarrassment, but at the same time expressed the profound conviction that the photos were exceptional and beautiful, not for the way they looked but for the way they made him, or viewers generally, feel.

They were art.

Yes, I recognize that porn is also about how it makes you feel, and while we can debate the merits of that another day, the difference here is that the photographs in question touch viewers in far more complex (and even intimate) ways, emotionally and intellectually.  Titillation, if at all present, is a subtle nuance rather than a slap in the face (or a yank in the pants).

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Oct

05

Sweet Dreams Are Made of These

Politics and Opinion / Transgender Life  Posted by / 2 comments

lennoxAnnie Lennox, the gender-bending artist who came to fame as the voice (and soul) of the Eurythmics in the eighties, has recently become the sole focus of an art exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London called “The House of Annie Lennox” – a take-off on her website name – The House of Me.

She is even going to personally, physically be part of the exhibit.  In what she calls “a mix between art, video and showcase,” she will do some of her work at a desk within the display, on view to spectators but not able to see them.

If you don’t know Annie Lennox, treat yourself to a quick search online for her biography.  Or, just click this link: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Diva+display/5452384/story.html

In one of the unusual anecdotes I read, she had to furnish proof that she was actually female before MTV would allow her Sweet Dreams video to air.

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Sep

19

Labels

Introspection / Modeling / Transgender Life  Posted by / 5 comments
17 of 19 © 2011 Connie Tsang; model: Janie Black

“I see a spectrum with cross-dressers on one end and transsexuals on the other. I think I’m somewhere in the middle, so I call myself a T-girl. Someone else has said I’m bi-gender. You can put whatever name you want to it, but it’s somewhere in between those.” – Claire Black (Janie)
Sep

10

Trying It

Introspection / Modeling / Transgender Life  Posted by / 6 comments
18 of 19 © 2011 Connie Tsang; model: Janie Black

“You start to realize that if you don’t do something that you are wondering about now, you will never have a chance. It’s a very common theme among all the girls I’ve met who start doing this in their middle age.

Today, I think the younger people are starting a lot more to play with their gender, but that’s the generation after me. Among the t-girls that I know, every single one except for me, had thoughts about this when they were a child – either tried on their sister’s clothes or mother’s clothes, did something for Halloween or whatever, really liked it, thought about it again when they were a teenager, but never really could do it or whatever, for the guilt or pressure, until the middle age. Me, I’m the only one who has never thought, for one second, about doing this my entire life before I actually started doing it at this age.

– Claire Black (Janie)
Aug

29

Mirror

Introspection / Modeling / Transgender Life  Posted by / 3 comments
16 of 19 © 2011 Connie Tsang; model: Janie Black

“When I wake up in the morning, it’s always an interesting thing for me because I have a big mirror beside my bed, so when I open my eyes, sometimes I see a guy, and sometimes I see a girl. It’s a very strange thing, you know?” – Claire Black (Janie)
Aug

22

Understanding

Introspection / Modeling / Transgender Life  Posted by / 4 comments
15 of 19 © 2011 Connie Tsang; model: Janie Black

“One of the things about doing this is I just have gotten a completely different appreciation of what women do, what women are, what they go through, all of those things. If I forgot my phone in the car, or I have to feed the meter or something, running out to my car in heels is different than running out to my car not in heels, y’know?” – Claire Black (Janie)
Aug

17

As It Comes

Introspection / Modeling / Transgender Life  Posted by / 1 comments
14 of 19 © 2011 Connie Tsang; model: Janie Black

“I prefer if I can [spend the day as] the person I feel naturally. But sometimes I can’t, either because I have obligations as a guy, which is not as hard for me to deal with, or because I don’t want to miss an opportunity to go out as a girl when I have the chance. If I force it, I just end up feeling out of sorts.” – Claire Black (Janie)
Aug

11

Special

Introspection / Modeling / Transgender Life  Posted by / 2 comments
13 of 19 © 2011 Connie Tsang; model: Janie Black

“I don’t feel trapped in this body… I find that being both sexes is nicer than being just one alone. I think it’s special in a special way. In a different way, it’s a special thing. A lot of people don’t understand it. A lot of people can’t handle it. A lot of people don’t like it. But for those that do, it’s really something unique and special.” – Claire Black (Janie)
Aug

06

Nature-Nurture

Introspection / Modeling / Transgender Life  Posted by / 8 comments
12 of 19 © 2011 Connie Tsang; model: Janie Black

“I started doing this, I guess, 4 years ago now. I’m still not sure, even today, if this is something that I’m doing or something that I am. It’s a really big issue for me, because if it’s something that I do, then I have to start asking questions about why I’m doing it. Is it productive? Is it self-destructive? Is it procrastination? Is it guilt? Is it not right? Are you true to yourself? All that kind of stuff. But if it’s something that I am, well, that’s what I am, and I might as well just stop the pretense of a lot of things. But I don’t know that yet. I really don’t.” – Claire Black
Aug

05

A Natural

Introspection / Modeling / Transgender Life  Posted by / 3 comments
11 of 19 © 2011 Connie Tsang; model: Janie Black

“I saw this girl riding her bike, and I looked at her and I thought, “She’s just dressed in a tank top and jeans and those Birkenstock sandals riding a bike somewhere, just in nothing, just whatever. She’s gorgeous. She’s just so beautiful, and she had to do nothing to be beautiful. It didn’t matter what she wore. She was feminine. You knew she was feminine from 10 miles away, and it didn’t matter. I thought about how I would look if I dressed like that. I’d look like a dock worker.” Claire Black (Janie)