Pride as a project, centres itself around the themes of identity and representation in regards to living as both an Asian identity and under the Transgender spectrum. Primarily focusing on how the photographed subjects who are also asian and transgender, exists in the context of performance, public spaces and private routines. The project challenges the standards of an Asian Transgender person existing within a binary, heteronormative, patriarchal archetypes. Using portrait photography and creative writing, PRIDE uses the emotion of pride as the foundation to affirm one’s own definition of how they can exist. When first drafting ideas for PRIDE, I was and still am frustrated with how my representation as both a person of colour and as a transgender identity has been trivialized and circulated. From shooting on 35mm film to sequencing with 4x6 prints and having the final form of the project being a photobook, I wanted every step of the project to take up space in the real world and have it’s own body. I see the photobook and method of production as my preferred way to engage with images and my own practice. The tactility of the photobook allows for audiences to physically engage with the photographs and shares the physical world with audiences by taking up space in the context within the everyday routine. The project taking form as a book also challenges anti-authorship rhetoric by having the photographs only be accessible through physical engagement. The significance of the book is also a medium that has historically engages in practices of record keeping and community engagement. A book is something that can be traded with, borrowed, archived. It holds viewers responsible for its safekeeping and longevity.
PRIDE exhibited at Maximum Exposure 30: Legacy (04.25.2025 - 05.04.2025)