His name: Blake Little. He is one of the most cutting edge photographers in the LGBTQ community. On October 8, 2018, we published his portraits of LGBTQ gun owners. He just sent us his most recent images which were published in the magazine Public 62.
Portraits of trans, gender fluid, non-binary, Two Spirits and other diverse gender identities guided by an aesthetic of simplicity, distillation & clarity. The photos are published in the art literary journal Public 62: The Gender Diverse Lens.
In early 2017 Los Angeles-based photographer Blake Little launched a photographic portrait project by soliciting 20 models from southern California. Blake continued the project photographing 45 people in Victoria, BC , Regina, SK and Saskatoon, SK, Canada. With a simple casting call, Little set out to document the growing diversity of individuals on the ever expansive gender identity spectrum. Currently in production, FLUID documents people who identify as trans, gender fluid, gender diverse, Two Spirit, non-binary, and dozens of other forms of gender-based identification. Little pays particular attention to diversity of class, race, age, geographic location, and vocation.
Little is guided by an aesthetic of simplicity, distillation, and clarity. Within the simplicity of his sets, backdrops, and lighting design, Little captures a range of complex details in his portrait subjects— from confident physiques, to the considered attire and body surfaces that each model offers. Each portrait further complicates our traditional understanding of the restrictive male/female binary, travelling along a visual and highly emotional spectrum, often skewing viewer expectations
FLUID Artist Statement
Stories of expressions of trans, gender fluid, non-binary, Two Spirit, and other diverse gender identities circulate widely, adding to a complex and oft-times challenging web of shifting societal responses to gender. My photographic eye is guided by an aesthetic of simplicity, distillation & clarity. I want to apply this eye to make visible the many ways we read photographs and their subject matter (imagined and real) but particularly via a collaborative process as filtered through the voices of the people who posed for these photographs.
Transgender identification, representation and image dissemination increasingly occupy the collective imagination and are reinforced by media headlines. Even as more and more trans, gender fluid, non- binary, and Two Spirit people are coming out in the public eye, the act of realizing/representing/revealing/ exposing/ exhibiting oneself through photography is a brave act, a form of defiance for a new wave of gender fluid pioneers reclaiming a broader live presence and virtual presence via social media. In the process, difference is being normalized.
Blake Little
PUBLIC 62
Editor for PUBLIC 62: Wayne Baerwaldt, 21C Curators Inc.
Design: Barr Gilmore
http://www.publicjournal.ca/62-the-gender-diverse-lens-2/
