Ebenezer Galluzzo
This project began as a way to witness the truth of my gender expression and morphed into a celebration of myself, my power, my embracing trans identity. The photographic series, "As I Am", evolved out of my process of coming out as a trans man. These self-portraits and the process of creating them became a refuge from words that felt limiting and acted as a place to listen to the wisdom of my body.
Historically, photography is a medium that has been associated with capturing reality/truth. Not everyone has been written into the stories of our history. As trans existence and experiences are continually scrutinized, questioned, erased, our cultural reality can disappear.. with my photograph of myself I to make the multitude of my experiences visible and validated. Self-portraiture and time are the means with which I am able to look at myself and tease apart the truth from an imposed binary gender system in a dominant culture that seeks to tell me my existence is unnatural.
Body postures, colors, symbols, emotions, objects are gendered in this culture from the moment of birth, imposed on humans in accord with genitalia. My images challenge these gender norms while seeking new possibilities of existence through the dynamic tension of contradiction. Through contradictions new paths open for me to know what is possible.
Each photograph has a span of time between printing and completion. As time passes for each photograph, the narrative I started with changes. Depending on the needs of each portrait I add on with gold leaf, paper, paint, and objects, transforming the original image, allowing the portrait to encompass the layers of my experience. With each addition to the portrait, I am blessing the full existence of my trans identity while honoring the time it has taken me to arrive at this place of deepening self-acceptance.