I recently came across Chanel, who is a Birmingham based photographer. She was working on a project inspired by the themes of gender and gender identity and wanted to use shades of pink and purple on her male model, Tristan. Going forward I want to challenge myself more and succeed in bringing other people’s visions to life, as I’m often given a lot of creative freedom.
Chanel and I got chatting and she sent me a mood board. From this, it was decided that the design should have very sharp lines and bold shapes of colour. I felt a practice run was in order, and gave it a go on myself (as I often do!) and sent some images over. We were both pleased and raring to go. The shoot was postponed due to sudden heavy snow – good old English weather, unpredictable as ever! Not deterred, we rearranged and made sure to get into the studio!
Here are the final results. Thanks to Chanel Welton for photographing and Tristan for modelling.
I feel that raising awareness about sexual orientations and gender identity is important, which is why this theme appealed to me. Diversity should be acknowledged and celebrated. We are not all the same and we do not all identify as being the gender we are assigned to at birth. Recognising this even if we don’t all fully understand each other is a step in the right direction. We share air and earth. It really is as easy as just accepting each other. (Incidentally, Childline has a wonderful section on their website which is useful for a person of any age wishing to know more about sexual and gender identity https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/your-feelings/sexual-identity/ )
