I feel pretty amazed to have the privilege of being photographed, but also to actually take up that opportunity and say “yeh, I’ll do it”. It’s totally not my style, and even a couple of months ago I probably would have shied away from it. So, I pretty much feel awesome about it.
Plus Rebecca Swan was super amazing about all the gender stuff too; calling us “guys” and using male pronouns the whole time, even if on top of our nakedness and my lack of testosteroned body. It could have been quite a vulnerable-making, terrifying experience, but Rebecca was totally awesome about helping us feel seen.
You should check out her site here, btw: SITE!!
TRANSCRIPT:
Panel 1:
Sam: (A person wearing a lavender, collared shirt, a plum vest and pale brown trousers, who is looking directly at the viewer. Eyebrows are raised and mouth is open, with slightly upturned edges. One arm is raised from the shoulder, slightly higher than horizontally, its hand holding a leaf. There are pairs of parallel lines by the leaf, and by Sam’s hand. The other arm is raised from the shoulder, slightly lower than horizontally.) So you know those ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ moments that pop-up and zip-past you and you grab it as a reaction? And later you think: ‘Woah! I can’t believe I did that!’… Yes? No? Well that happened to me recently.
Panel 2:
(There is writing taking up most of the panel, which reads:) From 1995 – 2010 Rebecca Swan created ‘Assume Nothing”, which showcases and explores gender and sexual diversity in Aotearoa.
(The leaf from the first panel is here, with two more parallel lines, indicating movement. There is also a grey image of a nude person, who has short hair, closed eyes, slightly raised eyebrows, and a closed mouth. Head is tilted back slightly and arm is bent, with hand on hip. There is a large, intricate, circular design on the person’s upper thigh. An arrow is pointing at the person, with the words:) Apologies to Rebecca Swan
Panel 3:
(The leaf from the previous two panels is here again, with a line, which indicates movement. There is writing taking up most of the panel, which reads:) So aside from being the most fabulous person ever, she asked us to be in her latest project; ‘Sweat’ about the diversity of LGBT intimacy.
Sam: (A person wearing an unbuttoned lavender, collared shirt, who is looking directly at the viewer. Eyebrows are raised and mouth is open, with upturned edges. Arms are bent forward at the elbows and hands are in fists around the edges of the shirt before Sam’s chest.)
Joe: (A nude person, who is looking directly at the viewer, with raised eyebrows and an open mouth, which has upturned edges. Arms are crossed across Joe’s chest.) We had to get naked!
Panel 4:
(The leaf makes another appearance, below which are words, they read:) Yep, we pretty much got naked and made-out. It was awesome.
Sam: (A nude person, who is facing the viewer. Eyes are closed, eyebrows raised, and mouth against Joe’s. One hand is on Joe’s neck, and the other on Joe’s butt. There are droplets flying from the two people, and the words “schmck” & “slorrrp!”.)
Joe: (A nude person, who is facing away from the viewer. Mouth is against Sam’s, and arms are around Sam’s upper back.)
Discussion (11) ¬
That sounds like it was a truly wonderful experience! It’s great to be able to work with someone who just gets it like that, isn’t it?
Indeed, such a great experience 🙂
I LOOOOVED ‘Assume Nothing’ when I saw it, it made me feel so happy – you’re so lucky! Good for you for doing it!
Oh yay, yeh it’s a pretty inspirational exhibition! And yep, we’re totally lucky 😀
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh nakey tranny fags! likey!
Ah yaaaay!
It’s funny, I actually had a pretty similar experience, which I wrote about in one of my zines. This queer photographer that I kind of knew asked to take pictures of me naked in a forest. I didn’t end up doing it, mostly cause I was too shy to talk to her, but she was totally awesome about the whole gender thing.
i’m really proud of us too my love.
i’ve been so averse to taking pictures of myself since starting T, for a whole lot of complex reasons, and i feel so lucky that some of the few pictures from this time will be rebecca swan’s. i think we both did an amazing job of relaxing and being intimate and delicious.
and obviously, kudos to bex. (if she signed her email to me “bex” then i’m going to assume i can call her thus, which feels incredibly exciting and a little ridiculous.)
This is awesome! I love the title “Assume Nothing.” Wish I could have seen it!
It’s a pretty awesome exhibition. She also turned it into a book aaaand Kirsty Macdonald made an incredible documentary about it, you can watch the trailer for it here it’s soooooooo awesome.