Imag(in)ing Trans Partnerships: Collaborative Photography and Intimacy

In this peer reviewed journal article, Davidmann argues that collaborative photography offers dynamic potential for imag(in)ing trans* intimate partnerships beyond the authority of textual representation. Davidmann presents five photographic and narrative case studies, spanning a range of trans* partnerships in the UK, to demonstrate some of the complex ways in which bodies, genders, sexualities, and time intersect in trans* intimacy. She argues that the photographs create an imaginative resource, both for the people depicted in the photographs and for those viewing the photographs, providing new possibilities for thinking about trans* partnerships, expanding the ways in which trans intimate partnerships are imag(in)ed, and opening up new spaces of possibility for gender and sexual identities

Visualising the Transexual Self: Photography, Strategies, and Identities

This study explores the role of the visual world in negotiations of gender, selfimage, the body, and the social domain, and the impact this has on the visualisation of transsexual gender identities. These issues are brought into sharp analytical focus through the personal experiences of transsexual people. The inquiry brings a new approach to trans gender studies by using visual research methods that reflect specifically the centrality of the visual in negotiations of gender in society. This thesis is a practice-based PhD that uses the methods of photography and interview in dialogue with theoretical approaches. In this photography constitutes both a methodology and a form of evidence in the research. The social expectation of photography is that it reproduces reality. Yet, it also offers a form of communication, one beyond the spoken or written word. The research builds on these concepts, while exploring photography's potential to be used collaboratively and reflexively. What emerges, I shall argue, is a highly discursive and performative 'photo space'. The core material is presented in four case studies that explore the key themes that came to the surface through the inquiry. These are: the impact of the visual world in negotiations of gender, the role of images in transsexual selfvisualisation, the capacity for photography to reveal insights into the transsexual self-image, and the dysfunctional dialogue that exists between atypical gender identities and social gender categories. A context for the structure of the argument is provided by a review of historical and cross-cultural transgender identities, intersex conditions, the emergence of the transsexual identity in a medical sphere, and social visibility. Two significant areas of concern and exploration involving the visual world previously ignored in research into transsexuality: 'seeing' the body and 'being seen' by others, emerged in the inquiry. These concerns have been central to the debates around the construction of gender stereotyping in society in general and in particular with regard to the media. However, in transsexual discourses these issues become heightened and self-consciously performative. It is this heightened awareness of the visual realm with regard to gender that is the focus of this thesis. The issues of 'passing', the performance of gender, and 'the wrong body', which are central to the understanding of transsexual experiences to date, are examined in relation to these areas of concern because they provide important new perspectives on these concepts. The research demonstrates that gender is not necessarily contained within the binary categories, that the genitals are not always the defining feature of transsexual gender identities, and that surgery is not a necessary outcome of trans sexuality. The evidence that surfaces in this study contests the widely held belief in the two-sexes/two-genders system, founded on the assumption that gender follows biology. Following this, I suggest that photographs of the atypically gendered body have the potential to question pre-conceptions of gender and the body, contest the boundaries of the binaries, and present a challenge to the gender system

Queer conceptions: procreation beyond gender: a photographic essay

The acts of conceiving and giving birth beyond socially sanctioned binary gender roles arguably represents the ultimate challenge to heteronormative beliefs on sex and gender, propelling assumptions about essentialism, biology and gender dynamically to the fore. Taken from a larger photographic project depicting personal experiences of ‘queer’ births and parenting, this photographic essay presents Jason’s story (The Birth of LJ), in a series of photographs of a queer pregnancy and the weeks following birth. In the photographs the ostensibly conflicting signifiers of sex and gender contest widely held views on gender and biology. Through a heteronormative lens, pregnant = female = woman while moustached = male = man. Nonetheless, Jason is depicted occupying a space beyond these boundaries and moving freely between them. The social expectations of photography, which are that photography reproduces reality, underline and reinforce the dynamics of these images. With regard to mainstream beliefs on sex, gender and giving birth, in 2008 Thomas Beatie, a trans man, became pregnant and took his story to the press. The media frenzy surrounding the idea of “a pregnant man” and the public uproar that followed demonstrates the powerful threat that transgression of the ‘man impregnates and woman conceives’ equation poses to the two-sexes/two-genders system. Beatie became the recipient of hate mail and death threats and he was described as “a freak”, “a monster” and “sick” on Internet chat forums. By presenting Jason’s perspective, this photographic essay counters and refutes the media’s account of what it means to be queer and pregnant. Further, Queer Conceptions arose in response to the increasing number of people who, while self-identifying as queer, are having children, becoming parents and raising families. These photographs capture the emergence of a new generation, that by the very nature of their birth, challenge preconceptions of sex, gender and procreation. Following this, Sara Davidmann argues that procreation seen through a queer lens may represent the ultimate challenge to the binary sex and gender systems

Moose on the Loose 2017 Biennale of Research: Collaborations Transformations

Co-curated by Val Williams and Sara Davidmann, the third edition of Moose on the Loose had at its core the exhibition Ken. To be destroyed, which explored a narrative of transgenderism and family relationships from the 1950s and 60s. From this, Williams and Davidmann created a Biennale which explored family relationships and the power of art practice and filmmaking,curatorship,theory and research to investigate cultural and social phenomena. Encompassing photography, film, publishing and letterpress this piece of curatorship explored the ways in which research can be bith created and disseminated via event, providing a platform for debate and a research audience. The possibilities inherent in collaboration were explored, for example via the "Relatives' film festival, for which a group of MA students were commissioned to provide programming and context for the event, and in the symposium Shadows II for which the curators collaborated with the London Alternative Photography Network. Also included in the collabrative programme, was a series of Instagram 'takeovers' whereby new work by a series of emerging artists was created specifically for PARC/Moose Instagram account. Moose also commissioned letterpress designer Alexander Cooper to produce a new work around the archive of Ken. To be Destroyed, and the new Ken Project Archive was also displayed,to mark the beginning of new research. The Biennale also collaborated with Canterbury Christ Church University to make Moose on the Road, a day of exhibitions and talks which explored transformative identities. Also central was work by David Moore in partnership with Val Williams and PARC on the transformation of an archive of photographs into the 'Lisa and John Slideshow. In curating this edition of the Biennale, Williams and Davidmann were interested in exploring the ways in which placing research into the context of event can create dialogue with audience and extend the possibilities of research by, in effect, performing it.The Moose 2017 programme can be found at http://mooseontheloose.ne

Curating Ken.To be destroyed

A conference paper co authored by Val Williams and Sara Davidmann and presented at the conference: Researching, Writing and Exhibiting Photography Symposium organized by the Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture at the University of Westminster. In 2013, curator Val Williams read a press story about the archive which artists Sara Davidmann had inherited (with her two siblings) from her mother, Audrey. The archive contained papers, letters and photographs which related to a period of years in the 1950s and 60s, when Audrey’s younger sister Hazel discovered that her husband Ken, was transgender. Frim this archive Sara had begun to make work and the early makings of the series ‘The Dress’ and ‘For Ken’ had begun to evolve. Sara was also doing very detailed research into the archive itself, transcribing letters, tracing references, attempting to decipher the relationship between family members, from shreds of evidence, mainly letters. The relationship between Val Williams as editor and curator, Sara Davidmann as family archivist and artist began revolves around three curatorial outcomes:1. a small exhibition Ken. To be destroyed at the UAL Photography and the Archive Research Centre in 2013, 2. An exhibition at the Schwules Museum in Berlin which was an enlarged version of the 2013 show, with new work by Sara and the latest iteration Ken. To be Destroyed in the Upper Gallery at the London College of Communication, staged as the central show of the Moose on the Loose Biennale,2017. This paper will look at the ways in which three very different outcomes, in different locations and with different audiences in two different countries have come from the ‘Ken’ project and archive resources and the way in which the curatorial/artist collaboration has worked over the three projects. Particular research questions of interest could be: 1. How does curatorship and collaboration ensure that a project such as Ken. To be destroyed will appeal to the broadest possible audience? 2. How is the balance between the archive’s narrative and art practice emerging from the archive, created and maintained? 3. To what extent does audience matter when making a new exhibition- e.g. Schwules, which has a loyal core audience interested in ‘queer’ issues (as well as a wider public) and LCC where the audience is predominantly students and staff. 4. How do the characteristics of exhibition space determine what is produced and selected and how it is shown? NB: The paper was read by Sara Davidmann as Val Williams was speaking at another conference

Trans youth, science and art: creating (trans) gendered space

This article is based on empirical research which was undertaken as part of the Sci:dentity project funded by the Wellcome Trust. Sci:dentity was a year-long participatory arts project which ran between March 2006 and March 2007. The project offered 18 young transgendered and transsexual people, aged between 14 and 22, an opportunity to come together to explore the science of sex and gender through art. This article focuses on four creative workshops which ran over two months, being the ‘creative engagement’ phase of the project. It offers an analysis of the transgendered space created which was constituted through the logics of recognition, creativity and pedagogy. Following this, the article explores the ways in which these transgendered and transsexual young people navigate gendered practices, and the gendered spaces these practices constitute, in their everyday lives shaped by gendered and sexual normativities. It goes on to consider the significance of trans virtual and physical cultural spaces for the development of trans young peoples' ontological security and their navigations and negotiations of a gendered social world

nu-gender

This AHRC funded research project addresses the differences between hormonal and surgical changes in transsexual transformations; how the stages of transition from female-to-male and male-to-female could be visually represented; how personal experiences of the body in transition could be communicated to others; and if it is appropriate to define transsexual identities within the female/male binary categories or rather whether they constitute a space beyond the polarities. The photographic outcomes of this research include a solo exhibition of photographs at the APT Gallery in London in 2003, entitled ‘nu-gender’ and the publication of a photo-essay in 2004, entitled ‘trans agenda: transsexual portraits’, comprising eight colour photographs in the photography journal ‘Source’ (UK and Ireland). The methodology employed recorded interviews and photographs, combining fine art and documentary photographic approaches with ethnography. Depicting transsexual people in stages of transition, from female-to-male and male-to-female through the use of opposite-sex hormones and in some instances surgery, the underlying aim of this work was to convey the body as it is experienced by the subject, through the use of large-scale images and the isolation of the subjects within the image frame. This extends standard documentary methods by using a fine art approach to photography in order to represent the subject's perspective. Through its approach to the use of scale and direct experience in order to bridge the gap between transsexual and non-transsexual people the work generated greater understanding and new knowledge in the field. A key aspect of this work is that it explores female-to-male, as well as male-to-female transsexual experiences. Supported by Wimbledon School of Art, Lewisham Council and the APT Trust, three public talks were given to coincide with the exhibition by two of the participants in the project and by Davidmann on the research methodology and aims of the work

Jason and the Birth of Laurie Joe

Despite academic research disputing the assumption that sex and gender are limited to the binary female/male categories (Butler 1990, 1993, 2004; Herdt 1996; Kessler and McKenna 2000) there continues to be a widely-held belief in the two-sexes/two-genders system (Hines 2010; Roen 2010). This series of photographs constitutes an intervention into assumptions of essentialism, biology, and gender. In contrast to the previous work, it takes a new position by demonstrating through visual means that the supposed “natural” order and primacy of the two-sexes/two-genders system can be disrupted through the act of procreation. This series was produced as part of an AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts, LCC 2007 - 2010

Censored

Photographic projections onto an exterior wall