Beyond Our Bodies

Beyond Our Bodies

Elliot and Lucia in bed, Melbourne, Australia, 2018 Lucia and Elliot started dating in Berlin, where they both live. She is from Argentina, he is from Australia. It was the first time Lucia came to Australia to visit Elliot's family. She said that getting outside of Berlin's alternative bubble would always be a reminder of the rampant intolerance of the greater world, and that being queer was not that well accepted everywhere. Lucia doesn't really like it here and told me that in some places people would really stare at them. This is a crucial period in Elliot's life as he started transitioning gender, and they support each other a lot. Even though Australia recently voted yes for same sex marriage, there is still hostility towards LGBTQIA people, especially in small country towns. Photo by Su Cassiano/Middle East Images/ABACAPRESS.COM

  • Product Code
  • ILEA002291506
  • Registered date
  • 2018/3/16 00:00:00
  • Credit
  • Abaca Press / Kyodo News Images
  • Media source
  • Middle East Images/ABACA
  • Media size
  • 5000 × 3338 pixel
  • Resolution
  • 300 dpi
  • Deployment size
  • 2.93(MB)*
  • Special instruction

*File size when opened in Photoshop, etc.

Similar Images & Videos
    Beyond Our Bodies

    Beyond Our Bodies

    Shoshana is a queer trans Jewish academic and researcher in sexual and queer health. "I've always found myself on the periphery of peripheral groups: punks, queers, Jews... I'm always too A for B, too B for C etc. I've been very lucky to create my own communities and spaces with other queerdos and freax who exist in the same liminal ways that I do. These days I find my identity as a butch dyke to be the most prominent way that I connect to people, and the closest thing to a core description of who and what I am. Living in the 'margins' is challenging, but I'll take doggy-paddling through the world over wearing floaties and never learning to survive. » Shoshana Photo by Su Cassiano/Middle East Images/ABACAPRESS.COM
      A Brighter Summer Day

      A Brighter Summer Day

      Dan Yao posing in a traditional dress in their one room apartment, Taichung, Taiwan, 2019 « I think I’m meant to break the rules, these gender roles. I hate people saying that boys should do this or women should wear that. These boxes are all made by us, humans, so humans can break these rules too! I still care a bit about what people think so I don’t want to look cheap. I want to look elegant, to be beautiful. I want people to think he/she/they is beautiful and I want them to forget if I am a boy or a girl. » Dan Yao Dan Yao lives in Taichung, a big city on the west coast. They make jewelry and are a make up artist in their spare time. They started to wear heels, dress and make up when they were still in school. Photo by Su Cassiano/Middle East Images/ABACAPRESS.COM
        A Brighter Summer Day

        A Brighter Summer Day

        Darice at the arcade, Taipei, Taiwan, 2019. ‘I hope that anyone who reads my story or sees this project gets more confidence to be themselves. I’ve just turned thirty and I’m realizing more who I am now so I hope no matter your age, your gender or your orientation you can find yourself and be comfortable with it. Because even if you don’t know anyone like you, right now there is a lot of us out there.’ Darice Darice is Taiwanese American and identify as non binary, which means they don't identify as male or female. Growing up they were quite a tomboy and thought that one day they would grow to become a bearded old man, but that never happened. They learned how to perform femininity as a skill and trained for beauty pageants in America where their family moved. They learned how to wear make up, how to walk. We met at their favorite place, an arcade in Gonguan, the student area, where they go to play a dancing game when they can't sleep at night. Photo by Su Cassiano/Middle East Images/ABACAPRESS.COM
          A Brighter Summer Day

          A Brighter Summer Day

          Shih Han on the roof top of the building where his family lives, New Taipei City, Taiwan, 2019 ‘I feel very proud that Taiwan just became the first Asian country to legalize same sex marriage, and I really believe it’s just the first step. Now we have to let more and more people know that we have the same rights as heterosexual people. Education is the priority.  I get discriminated by gay men because of this expectation that we should be muscular with short hair, as to compensate for something. I’m sick of this. Some patriarcal gay men asked me why I had long hair, thinking I was giving gay men a bad name by looking different. They think it’s adding an extra layer of misunderstanding for the society. They believe I’m not a good gay man. But why should I follow the rules? I just want to be myself.’ Shih Han Shih Han is a performing artist. He lives with his family in New Taipei City. Photo by Su Cassiano/Middle East Images/ABACAPRESS.COM
            A Brighter Summer Day

            A Brighter Summer Day

            A Brighter Summer Day tells intimate stories from the LGBTQIA+ community in Taiwan in the period leading to the legalization of same sex marriage and its aftermath. In 2017, the Taiwanese government declared it unconstitutional to exclude same sex couples from marriage giving Taiwan two years to vote for the bill and dividing the country. 7 millions people voted against. On the 17th of May 2019, same sex marriage was legalized, Taiwan becoming the first country in Asia to do so. Nevertheless inequality continues regarding adoption or marrying a foreign person, to name a few of the remaining issues. Stigma and stereotypes are still attached to same sex relationships, even more so regarding gender issues. Gender diverse people’s existence is often hidden as gender binaries are strongly enforced and people who exist outside of this binary system are rejected or made invisible. Even within the queer scene, the stereotypical representations of masculinity and femininity are prevalent. Photo by Su Cassiano/Middle E
              A Brighter Summer Day

              A Brighter Summer Day

              'Be Brave! Never be scared to love, so that you can be a good person.' Yellow Yellow and Menu Ma (right) have been together for nearly three years. They started to chat on a lesbian app and had a lot in common, especially theatre. It took a while for Menu's mother to accept the fact that her daughter was a lesbian as Menu's brother is also gay. Her first reaction when Menu came out was to ask why her kids were monsters. Since then she has come a long way and she really likes Yellow now. Traditionally, kids in Taiwan will express their feelings with their mothers, not their father who still holds the role of the strict family figure. As a result, a lot of young adults only come out to their mother. A gay friend of Menu comes to the family house often and her dad, thinking he’s straight, hopes that eventually he will marry his daughter. Photo by Su Cassiano/Middle East Images/ABACAPRESS.COM
                A Brighter Summer Day

                A Brighter Summer Day

                Wëi Yi and Jay kissing in Jay's apartment, Taipei, Taiwan, 2019 ‘I think gender stereotypes are also very strong in the gay community. Taiwanese gay men don’t have their own culture, so they’re appropriating the western gay culture but without the drag aspect. Drag culture just appeared about five years ago, and before that it was just about masculinity. Men feel like they need to be stocky or have bodies like western men to be acceptable. In Taiwan, we only have the history of fighting and resisting but we don’t have the history of defining ourselves, or defining our own culture. Also the government tends to erase gay culture and art. So we don’t have our own gay history, we don’t have a path to follow our culture and identity, so we copy from the western world. And Taiwan has been colonized by many countries, by Japan, China and Spain. So we tend to change ourselves, to adapt very quickly. There’s been many changes in the past years.’ Jay Photo by Su Cassiano/Middle East Images/ABACAPRESS.COM
                  A Brighter Summer Day

                  A Brighter Summer Day

                  Tang Tang and Ryan's wedding rings, New Taipei City, Taiwan, 2019. These rings have been given by Tang Tang’s family to bless their union. Ryan : 'This year, we couldn’t wait anymore so we got married in Las Vegas. I was already out with my siblings but I called my extended family to tell them the news. But the aunt I’m the closest with and who helped raising me, my god mother, said 'This does not align with our traditions. How? How could I accept it?' I was really sad because all the other aunts were supportive, even my uncles, but not her. Maybe because I wasn’t expecting it, thinking that she would support me no matter what. But we got married nonetheless, just without her blessing. Later on Tang Tang came back first and brought something to her. When he did that, she congratulated us. So eventually, everyone accepted. And I am like, hey, I’m actually really lucky.' Ryan Photo by Su Cassiano/Middle East Images/ABACAPRESS.COM
                    Beyond Our Bodies

                    Beyond Our Bodies

                    Letter of Raynen to their younger self.' Dear Raynen, you will have support - that won’t mean that you won’t feel alone or scared or anxious - in fact you will have a few solid years of anxiety ahead of you, but it will teach you. I’m wary to write to you. I know we have different ways to communicate. Sometimes, I feel like I’m a different beast from you, but maybe that is age, and maybe that is dissociation, and maybe that is deciding and moving forward and building from the base of where we’ve come from. I know you are scared in a way that makes you adventurous and bold. I miss that, we had a lot of fun then. I wonder sometimes where that has gone. As we make way for each other I will return and circle back, and integrate, and remember and pay my tiny homages to you. In 2012, you will say your first kind words to yourself -they will seem at odds and disbelievable at first - by the hops plant. Come 2019, you are building home within yourself.' Photo by Su Cassiano/Middle East Images/ABACAPRESS.COM
                      Beyond Our Bodies

                      Beyond Our Bodies

                      Elliot, Melbourne, Australia, 2018. Beyond our bodies is a feminist project about female, trans masculine and non binary people's struggles in the contemporary world. It's about giving space for alternative voices to emerge and empowering marginalized bodies. It was shot between 2017 and 2019 between Australia, Thailand and France. This project helped me come to terms with my own gender fluidity that I was questioning at the time, and the camera was a bridge as well as a mirror. While gender roles and representations are slowly shifting in modern societies, it is important to redefine terminology and show people who break the rigidity of the binary boundaries in their daily lives, by challenging normative gender structures enforced by society since they were born. This diary of encounters is mostly captured in the intimacy of people’s homes, because it's a safe space for them to express their truth, beyond restrictive binaries that are unfit to their complexities. It’s about holding space from the private sph