Diversity/Adversity
By Rogelio Pereda
10 Aug 2009
Diversity/Adversity is composed of photographs from two complementary series: The Way We Were and Big Face. These establish a kind of relation across the distance between the volunteers of the transgender support-group Sienna of Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky, in the United States and participants in the annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride marches in Mexico City. They are medium-distance shots of people holding photographs of themselves prior to their processes of gender transformation; and extreme close-ups of people who agreed to pose in natural light against a white or black background – without other technical aids and with respect for the desire of those who posed to present their best side. These portraits were taken in informal circumstances and are rooted in documentary reality, yet formally rigorous and conceptually self-conscious by imposing a strict seriality and a formal classicism in the captured images to destabilize and subvert conventional notions of masculinity and feminity.
While the aim of those photographed to share their respective personal histories is evident in the first series, some in the second set forth a challenge for the viewer by suggesting the necessity of identifying the gender of the people in the photographs. And that necessity is the objective of the two series: to attract the viewer by means of the dimensional scale of the faces, which permits the detailing of the tiniest physical modification or adulteration. Or, where appropriate, the perfection of the process of transformation at the least fosters doubt about the concept of identity, which would denote an advance toward understanding the adversities that these people have had to face in their aims of achieving congruence between their physical identity and their real inner self.
9 responses
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mark regester gave props (10 Aug 2009):
this is really great. voted yeah!
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Carlos Aviles said (11 Aug 2009):
Excelente ensayo fotografico.
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Maura Wolfson-Foster gave props (11 Aug 2009):
Not only should this series be published in JPG, but it should be published in book form - Brilliant work Rogelio!!!
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Maura Wolfson-Foster gave props (11 Aug 2009):
Of course you have my vote.....your work fascinates me sooo!
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Dorothy Menosky gave props (11 Aug 2009):
You've got my vote.
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Sean-Michael Bryce said (12 Aug 2009):
awesome!
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Ashly Martinez gave props (12 Aug 2009):
True beauty lies within. Seriously beautiful work.
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peter said (14 Aug 2009):
bravo!
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J. Aiden Simon gave props (14 Aug 2009):
So good.
