Entities is the name of a project I have carried out in order to empower a few friends who live their lives to the fullest. It is based on the concept of difference: its aim is to record permanently the beautiful looks of my trans and non binary friends who are constantly struggling with themselves (and the world around them). Their resilience and capacity to overcome huge obstacles, like rejection and discrimination, are indeed worth documenting: there are not many people I know so determined to always succeed in life’s most challenging situations like they do.
Photography, by embalming permanently one’s appearance, is usually considered to be about death or what no longer is. In this occasion, I couldn’t disagree more with that notion: while it is true that photography is a relic of the past, it is also true that, when used to record one’s beautiful appearance, the emphasis is on the joy and celebration of that very moment, not the relentless passing of time. Hence the partial nonsensicality of Barthes’ claim.
I chose the word Entities because all the subject of this research have a distinct and independent existence, often expressed through the way they look. Indeed, celebrating with photographs their beauty is also a way of documenting a flourishing minority that uses the concept of construction to their advantage. The degree of artifice experienced in our lives is unprecedented and, like many other aspects of our existence, gender has also been hugely impacted by what is constructed.
Big metropolis are no longer places where the traditional family is fostered or supported. A great number of people live there either in solitude, or in flat share with strangers, as a small room is all they can afford. Many of those, who do not have a traditional family structure behind them, will struggle to find happiness: it seems that love is a domain almost entirely ruled by patriarchy and matriarchy. The ignobility of such a social imposition is as colossal as all the forms of discrimination that are seen but swept under the carpet by perfect mums and perfect dads every single day, for their peace of mind obviously.
Ultimately, this project is based on the principle of disinterest, as it was completed solely to celebrate the remarkable nature of my friends appearances, nothing else. In medieval times the principle of disinterest was introduced in Christian teaching and, impressively, it can now be applied to a group of people which would have burnt at the stake for devilish activity.
An erudite man once said that there is a divine spark in everyone of us and, 21 centuries after such claim, this spark is often acknowledged as stardom. These creatures, with their way of living and style, are stars in the urban nebula where everything is decided a priori so to respect social, political, economic and sexual structures. Current socio-political circumstances do not like people that shine of inner light: they should be absorbing the one emitted from the predominant pole of power and be thankful for it.
“Everyone in their right place” is the golden rule of mechanised societies. Therefore, residing outside the binary division of biological reality, doesn’t mean that everything entities do is always against the law, religion or morality. Sometimes attitudes and behavioural patterns serve as a release valve for the way we are obliged to act within public and private frameworks:
in Bakhtin’s ubiquitous carnival such scenario is not very far from being a necessity. Transgression and escapism are often employed to remain within the boundaries of civilisation as we know it. Unfortunately, outside this tolerant scenario, it is very easy to contest entities’ decisions by pointing the finger at them, by discriminating and, very often, by turning them into fetishes. Consequently, the second aim of this project is to deter people from objectifying by stimulating, through appearances, a deeper form of curiosity.
Ultimately, this visual enquiry is a form of admiration for individuals who, by encapsulating the sexually particular, embody love’s most precious object: beauty. The visually pleasing or desirable is a universal ideal: it has perhaps reshaped itself historically but has, for millennia, delighted the senses of those who took their time to contemplate it.
Understanding beauty is a challenge for many, including myself, and being beauty a topic for discussion often ruthlessly debated, without proper training (and a grasp of critical analysis) one should observe without gazing, feel without indulging, and judge without demoting.
In life everything is relative: only stars remain, in the centuries of the sky, indifferent to criticism. Humans here on Earth do not: the opinions that pierce through our protective shields often leave indelible, inner marks which reshape us into employers of the masquerade. Indeed, when it comes to moral adequacy, heterosexuals often require the other to conform to inherited standards of the visually acceptable. Feminist scholars would regard this process as a formal articulation of the male gaze, whilst also touching upon Foucault’ theory of the “Docile Body” which controls, maintains and transforms the other into a subjugated social group. Being photography a sophisticated form of aggression, and being famous for appropriating and objectifying the subject, during this entire project my friends’ smooth surface never tried conceal any physical aberration of their castrated body. In other words, it was done by putting them in control of the photographic production, ensuring that the final images would truly represent them.
Modernity and its industry obliterated the genuine in people: very little now is generated spontaneously by them. Those who have various forms of power make us believe that individualism is now a function of infinite variety of choice which, bizarrely, makes us stand out from the unarticulated mass. It is class hegemony at its finest: dreams, fetishes and caprices projected onto the many below so today’s bourgeoisie could still dream, fetishise and enjoy its position of undeserved privilege (the superbe voyage).
It is by now evident that the constructed has become an integral part of our lives. And, indeed, gender is also a major construction. However, to define it as artificial would embed a negative connotation to a word which would lead people to misinterpretation. Subsequently, it seems ideal to associate the word gender with (a construction of) mutating matter. And that is the reason why I believe that its fluidity will, one day, no longer considered a threat to the human establishment. Perhaps, in this case time and patience are paramount as it is very hard to accelerate acceptance throughout all layers of society.
In order to evolve into who we are today, we have made trillions of mistakes throughout history, and discarding the possibility of living in a better world by accepting a parallel gender theory is nonsensical. Siding a priori whatever is not harmony with the impositions of society is likely to prevent the shift to a higher level of consciousness. For millennia everything was done in order to accumulate wealth so that a few privileged would flourish and enjoy the experience of being human, perhaps superhuman. Pre-industrial societies had no interest and resources to distribute wealth fairly and evenly, and whoever was against the status quo would be classified as superfluous, subhuman or an enemy of progress.
For a very long time the world was (and partially still is) divided between “the have” and “the have-nots”. Today the binary gender system has divided individuals in “be” and “be-not”. Remarkably, Plato (a champion of being over having) foresaw individuals living in a world of illusory impositions which sacrifice true subjectivity in terms of denying the spontaneous expression of oneself. Being non binary is de facto a rejection such cultural constraints so we, the people, can thrust towards a more inclusive future and a higher level of human experience.
Personally, I have been both a “Have-not” and a “Be-not” for decades, and it took me a long time to realise that perhaps some of the failures I have had to digest throughout my life were also determined by the way I look, speak and understand human relations. Having said that, I am not claiming that being non binary or trans (which I am not) will make the world perfect, but, in my opinion, it is an alternative way to better understand our body and mind in a rather complicated time of human history.
It is also worth noting that transgender health care is closely linked with medical studies, therapies and surgery beneficial to scenarios in which sexual orientation is not always prioritised. This research is leading to new treatments that could be beneficial to society at large, not just people struggling with gender identity. Hence the importance of ethical and respectful healthcare which is not solely determined by medical progress and financial gain.
There is no place in the world where people can live their lives without being judged by the eye of God, He (or She) is neutrally omnipresent. If living our sexuality out of the traditional schemes is a crime, specifically a crime against humanity, then His/Her perspective will be enable those who adopt it to decide what correctives ought to be applied.
Man has often decided wrongly what is to be considered universally beneficial: Only the Divine can ultimately determine whether we are striving towards a better future or we are folding back onto ourselves. Unforgivable mistakes were made in the past, and thinking that our previous experiences are relevant in front of such an unprecedented subversion of tenets is negatively impacting the outcomes that this revolution can produce. It is now time to think imaginatively using new ideas instead of traditional mindsets so we can all peacefully shift to a true state of free will.
As told during my MA years, to nullify the need of words the photograph, if used to document, ought to be objective. The other/entity has to be looked at impartially, and in oder to do that, we all need to step out of our own cultural, linguistics, ideological biases systems of belief and preconceptions. If only for a few seconds, when you look at these pictures be there by being other and find out for yourself what options you have to be happy. Some could conclude that resorting to looks and appearances is a peripheral form of happiness and, perhaps, depth should be sought far a lot more. However, as much as some people diverge to live in a constant carnival, others employ whatever is at hand (like appearances) to feel less pain, not more. Photography for me is a way to feel less pain and it has filled the vacuum left behind by discrimination. These pictures have tried not negate the very idea of subjectivity, which one day will flourish again on the fertile ground of what once was called intelligentsia.
